3  1822  01176  0600 


3  1822  01176  0600 


LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OF 
CAUFORNIA 
SAN  DIEGO 


BM          BlOMEOrAL  LIBRARY 
DIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA,  SAN  DIEG0 
LA  JGLLa,  CALIFORNIA 


V 

II', 


DATE  DUE 


04365- 


REC1, 


A. 


DISCOVERY 


OF  THE 


BY   P.   FLOURENS; 

Perpetual  Secretary  of  the  Academy  of  Sciences,  (Institute  of  France  ;) 
Member  of  the  Royal  Societies  and  Academies  of  Science  of  Lon- 
don, Edinburgh,  Stockholm,  Munich,  Turin,  Madrid, 
Brussels,  etc.,  etc.    Professor  at  the  Muse- 
um of  Natural  History  of  Paris. 

Etant  sur  les  banes,  il  fit  une  action  d'une  audace  signal^e,  qui  ne  pouvait 
gufere,  en  ce  temps-la,  etre  entreprise  que  par  un  jeune  homme,  ni  justifies 
que  par  un  grand  succ&s;  il  soutint  dans  une  thfese  la  circulation  du  sang. 
Les  vieux  clocteurs  trouv^rent  qu'il  avait  defendu  avec  esprit  cet  Strange 
paradoxe.— FONTENJCLLE,  Eloge  de  Fagon. 


TRANSLATED  FROM  THE  FRENCH, 

BY    J.    C.    REEVE,  'M .  D 


CINCINNATI : 

RICKEY,   MALLORY    &    COMPANY. 
1859. 


TRANSLATOR'S  PREFACE. 

A  desire  for  information  in  regard  to  the  history 
of  a  science,  as  naturally  follows  its  study  as  does 
the  wish  to  know  something  of  the  countries  through 
which  we  travel,  or  of  the  biography  of  authors 
whose  works  have  instructed  or  amused  us.  To 
medical  men  the  satisfaction  of  this  desire  is  attend- 
ed with  something  more  than  the  mere  gratification 
of  curiosity ;  lessons  of  great  practical  value  are 
to  be  derived  from  the  study  of  the  history  of  med- 
icine. As  we  observe  the  slow  and  uncertain  man- 
ner in  which  our  present  knowledge  has  been  at- 
tained, we  shall  feel  that  our  progress  is  likely 
also  to  be  gradual,  and  that  the  great  discoveries 
of  the  future  are  to  be  made,  like  those  of  the  past, 
by  patient  and  long  continued  observation,  judicious 
experiment  and  careful  generalization.  As  we  see 
the  doctrines  of  great  teachers,  which  were  received 
by  their  followers  as  infallible,  shown  one  after  the 
other  to  be  erroneous,  we  may  learn  caution  in 
regard  to  resting  our  efforts  with  the  present  attain- 
ments of  science.  For  these  and  many  other  rea- 
sons the  study  of  the  history  of  medicine  is  valua- 
ble to  the  practitioner,  and  has  always  been  re- 
commended to  the  student,  by  those  best  qualified 
to  judge,  as  an  important  part  of  his  professional 
education. 


iv  TRANSLATOR'S  .PREFACE. 

There  are,  however,  few  hooks  upon  medical  his- 
tory accessible  to  readers  in  this  country.  The 
voluminous  work  of  Sprengel  has  never  been  trans- 
lated into  the  English  language.  The  excellent 
History  of  the  Inductive  Sciences  by  Whewell  is  but 
partially  occupied  with  medical  subjects,  and,  until 
the  appearance  of  Prof.  Comegys'  translation  of 
Renouard's  History  of  Medicine,  the  profession  has 
been  limited  to  the  brief  sketch  upon  this  subject 
by  Dr.  Bostock  in  the  Cyclopedia  of  Practical 
Medicine. 

From  the  condensed  form  necessary,  when  so 
wide  a  subject  as  the  history  of  medicine  is  con- 
sidered within  the  limits  of  an  essay  or  even  of  a 
single  volume,  the  discovery  of  the  circulation  of 
the  blood  does  not  receive  that  attention  which  it 
merits,  either  in  the  article  by  Dr.  Bostock  or  in 
the  work  of  Renouard.  This  discovery  may  be 
said  without  exaggeration,  to  be  one  of  the  most 
important  events  in  the  history  of  medical  science ; 
some  of  the  greatest  minds  ever  in  the  profession 
took  part  in  it ;  it  exerted  an  important  influence 
upon  the  treatment  of  disease,  it  marked  a  new 
era  in  the  history  of  medicine,  and  effected  a  revolu- 
tion in  scientific  research.  All  who  reflect  upon 
these  facts  will  be  convinced  that  it  deserves  a 
separate  treatise. 

This  little  work  of  M.  Flourens  has  been  trans- 
lated and  is  now  presented  to  the  profession  of 


TRANSLATOR'S  PREFACE.  v 

this  country  in  hopes  that  it  may  help  to  supply 
information  upon  a  most  important  part  of  medi- 
cal history.  If  after  availing  himself  of  the  lite- 
rary resources  of  the  French  capital,  the  author 
found  the  history  of  this  discovery  imperfect,  it  is 
surely  unnecessary  to  apologize  for  offering  in  this 
country  the  result  of  his  efforts  to  complete  it. 
The  faithfulness  and  ability  with  which  he  has  per- 
formed his  task  are  guaranteed  hy  his  attainments 
and  his  position ;  as  a  scientific  man  and  as  an 
eminent  medical  writer,  he  has  so  long  been  known 
to  the  world,  as  to  render  any  introduction  here 
superfluous. 

Dayton,  Ohio,  May,  1859. 


AUTHOR'S  PREFACE. 


Some  years  ago,  while  looking  over  Ramazzini's 
Commentaire  upon  Cornaro,  my  attention  was  ar- 
rested by  the  folloAving  paragraph : 

"  The  ancients  were  entirely  ignorant  of  the 
circulation  of  the  blood,  and  we  are  indebted  to 
Harvey,  the  English  Democritus,  for  making  it 
known,  after  having  derived  it  from  those  two 
excellent  sources,  Fabricius  ab  Aquapendente  and 
Paul  Sarpi,  both  professors  at  Padua,  and  who 
made  so  many  experiments  upon  all  sorts  of 
animals." 

This  paragraph  awakened  my  curiosity ;  I  made 
research ;  I  found  writers  partizan,  biased,  and 
prejudiced;  of  the  true  historian,  the  judge,  I 
could  not  find  a  trace.  The  history  of  the  discov- 
ery of  the  circulation  of  the  blood  was  yet  to  be 
written. 

I  study  successively  in  this  work  all  the  wonder- 
ful discoveries  of  the  circulation  of  the  blood  pro- 
perly speaking,  of  the  lacteals,  of  the  reservoir  of 
the  chyle,  and  of  the  lymphatics.  I  follow  the 
facts  from  Erasistratus  and  Galen  to  Servetus,  from 
Servetus  and  Caesalpinus  to  Harvey,  from  Harvey 
to  Pecquet  and  Thomas  Bartholin. 


VIII  AUTHOR  S  PREFACE. 

One  point  has  particularly  occupied  my  atten- 
tion, I  have  applied  myself  to  the  investigation, 
and,  if  I  may  so  speak,  to  the  reconstruction  of  all 
the  ideas  of  Galen  in  regard  to  the  circulation  in 
the  adult  and  in  the  foetus,  the  formation  of  the 
blood  and  of  the  spirits,  and  the  origin  of  animul 
heat. 

In  one  chapter  are  examined  the  pretensions  of 
Sarpi  to  the  discovery  of  the  circulation  of  the 
blood,  and  in  another  the  physiological  doctrines 
of  Servetus,  that  strange  man  of  genius  !  I  close 
with  ttwo  chapters  upon  Guy-Patin,  the  most  ob- 
stinate and  at  the  same  time  most  talented  adver- 
sary which  modern  doctrines  encountered. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  DISCOVERY 


CIRCULATION    OF    THE    BLOOD. 


I. 

HARVEY  AND  THE  CIRCULATION  OP  THE  BLOOD. 

THE  discovery  of  the  circulation  of  the  blood  did 
not  belong,  and  could  scarcely  belong  to  a  single 
man,  nor  indeed  to  a  single  age.  Many  errors 
were  to  be  destroyed;  in  place  of  these  errors 
truths  were  to  be  established ;  and  this  was  accom- 
plished slowly,  little  by  little.  Galen  commenced 
the  discovery  by  combatting  Erasistratus ;  he  opened 
the  route  which  followed  afterward  by  Vesalius,  by 
Servetus,  by  Columbus,  by  Csesalpinus  and  by  Fa- 
bricius  ab  Aquapendente  conducted  us  to  Harvey. 

Three  principal  errors  masked,  if  I  may  so  speak, 
the  great  fact  of  the  circulation  of  the  blood.  The 
first  was,  that  the  arteries  contained  only  air;  the 
second,  that  the  septum,  between  the  two  ventricles 
of  the  heart,  was  perforated;  and  the  third,  that 
2 


12  CIRCULATION    OF  THE  BLOOD. 

the  veins  carried  the  blood  to  the  extremities  in- 
stead of  bringing  it  from  them. 

Let  us  see  with  \vhom  these  errors  originated 
and  who  destroyed  them. 

Erasistratus. 

Erasistratus  held  that  the  arteries  contain  air ; 
he  did  not  believe  that  they  contain  blood. 

According  to  him  the  air  drawn  by  the  lungs 
penetrated  to  them  by  the  trachea  (trachee  artere}', 
from  the  trachea  it  passed  into  the  venous  artery 
(which  we  now  call  the  pulmonary  vein,)  from 
thence  it  entered  the  left  ventricle,  passed  on  into 
the  arteries  and  was  distributed  by  them  to  the 
system  at  large.1 

What  we  now  call  the  sanguineous  system,  the 
circulating  system,  was  then  divided  into  two — the 
arterial  or  cerian  and  the  venous  or  sanguineous 
system. 

The  arteries  were  serian  canals,  or  channels  for 
air;  hence  their  name  of  arteries,  and  hence  their 
similarity  of  name  to  the  trachee  artere,  which  is 
the  great  air-passage  of  the  body. 

(1)  According  to  Erasistratus  we  respire  only  to  fill  the 

arteries  with  air.     "Quaenam  est  utilitas  respirationis?  

Num  animae  ipsius  geueratio  est?  An  innati  caloris  ven- 

tilatio  ac  refrigeratio  ?  Aut  horem  quiclem  nihil  est, 

verum  arteriaruin  expletionis  gratia  respiramus,  velut  Erasis- 
tratus putat?'' — (De  utilitate  respirationis,  Galeni  opera,  edition 
des  Junte.  Venise,  1597,  p.  223.) 


HISTORY    OF   THE   DISCOVERY.  13 

Galen. 

As  soon  as  an  artery  is  opened,  says  Galen,  the 
blood  gushes  out  of  it:  then  one  of  two  things 
must  be  true,  it  was  either  contained  in  the  artery 
or  came  into  it  from  elsewhere.  But,  if  the  latter, 
if  the  artery  contained  nothing  but  air,  the  air 
should  come  out  before  the  blood,  and  this  does  not 
take  place;  blood  alone  comes  out  and  no  air;  then 
the  arteries  contain  nothing  but  blood.1 

Galen  made  another  experiment.  He  placed  two 
ligatures  on  an  artery  a  little  distance  apart;  he 
opened  the  canal  between  them  and  found  nothing 
but  blocd:  once  more  then,  the  arteries  contain 
blood  and  they  contain  nothing  but  blood.2 

But,  cried  the  followers  of  Erasistratus,  if  the 
arteries  contain  blood,  how  can  the  air  which  is 
drawn  in  by  the  lungs  pass  into  all  parts  of  the 

(1)  Quoniam  arteria  qtuicumque  vulnerata,  sanguinem 
egredi  videmus,  duorura  alterum  sit  oportet,  vel  in  arteriis 
sanguinem  contineri,  vel  aliunde  ipsum  in  eas  confluere. 
Quod,  si  aliunde  sanguis  in  eas  confluit,  manifestum  est  uni- 
cuique,  cum  se  naturaliter  arteriac  habebant,  spiritum  ipsas 
solummodo  continuisse.  Quod,  si  hoc  verum  esset,  oponebat 
in  vulneratis,  priusquam  sanguis  egrederetur,  spiritum  exire 
conspiceremus;  cum  autem  hoc  fieri  non  videamus,  nee  antea 
solum  spiritum  in  arteriis  contentum  fuisse  colligemus. — (An 
sanguis  in  arteriis  natura  conlineatur,  p.  60.) 

(2)  Ubi  funiculo  dissectam  arteriam  utrinque  ligavimus,  et 
quod  in  medio  comprehensum  fuerat  incidimus,  sanguine  ple- 
nam  ipsam  esse  monstravimus. — (Ibid.  p.  61.) 


14  CIRCULATION   OF  THE  BLOOD. 

body?  It  does  not  pass  there,  responded  Galen: 
the  air  which  is  drawn  in  is  rejected  again;  it 
serves  for  respiration  by  its  temperature  and  not 
by  its  substance;  it  cods  the  blood  and  that  is  the 
end  and  aim  of  respiration.1 

Assuredly  this  is  very  far  from  what  we  now 
know  of  the  respiration.  It  is  even  directly  con- 
trary to  what  takes  place.  Instead  of  cooling  the 
blood,  respiration  heats  it;  respiration  is  the  source 
of  animal  heat;  but  yet,  compared  with  the  doc- 
trines of  Erasistratus,  who  held  that  the  air  passed 
into  the  arteries  in  totality,  en  masse,  in  substance, 
as  it  passes  into  the  trachea  and  into  the  bronchiae, 
that  it  was  the  air  which  filled  the  arteries,  which 
distended  them,2  and  made  them  beat,  that  it  was 

(1)  Sed  quomodo,  reclamant,  in  totum  corpus  aer  veniet, 
quern  respirando  attrahimus,  si  sanguineum  arteriae  contin- 
eant  ?     Quibus    respondendum   est,   quoe    necessitas  hoc   eos 
fateri  cogat,  cum  possit  totus,  qui  respirando  admissus  est  aer, 
foras  esse  remitti:  quemadmodum  pluribus,  iisque  diligentis- 
simis  tarn  philosophis  quam  medicis,  visum  est,  qui  cor,  in- 
quiunt,    non  aeris   substantium   exposcere,  sed   frigiditatem 
solummodo,  qua  recreari  desiderat:  atque  hunc  esse  respira- 
tionis  usum.— (Ibid.,  p.  62.) 

(2)  "Consentiens  Erasistrati   sententinc;    quando- 

quidem  putat  arterias ideo  distendi,  quod  compleantur 

spiritu  (the  spirit,  that  is  to  say,  for  Erasistratus,  the  air;  it 
•will  be  seen  farther  on  what  Galen  considered  the  spirit),  a 
corde  suppeditato." — (De  pulsuum  di/erentiis,  p.  69.) 


HISTORY   OF   THE   DISCOVERY.  15 

the  air  which  caused  the  pulse,1  the  idea  of  Galen 
was  a  progress,  and  such  a  progress  that  physio- 
logy was  not  able  to  advance  beyond  it  until  she 
called  to  her  aid  the  resources  of  modern  chem- 
istry. Ilaller  believed  still  that  respiration  cooled 
the  blood. 

Thus  then  it  was  established  that  the  arteries  do 
not  contain  air ;  they  contain  only  blood  like  the 
veins;  an  entire  half  of  the  sanguineous  system, 
which  had  been  detached  by  an  hypothesis,  was 
given  back  to  it  again;  and,  as  the  circulation  is 
but  the  unceasing  movement  of  the  blood  from  the 
heart  into  the  arteries,  and  from  the  arteries  into 
the  veins,  and  through  the  veins  back  again  to  the 
heart,  so  long  as  the  arteries  were  supposed  to 
contain  nothing  but  air  the  discovery  of  the  circu- 
lation was  impossible :  without  the  first  step  which 
Galen  made  it  was  impossible  to  make  a  second. 

Of  *he  three  principal  errors,  then,  first  men- 
tioned, there  was  one  less;  one  was  destroyed. 
But  Galen  was  not  so  happy  with  the  two  others. 
He  still  believed  that  the  septum  between  the  two 
ventricles  was  perforated,  and  that  the  veins  car- 
ried the  blood  to  the  extremities :  two  errors  which 
were  destined  to  pass  from  him  to  the  moderns,  and 
the  latter  of  which  is  opposed  to  the  very  idea  of 
the  circulation. 

(1)  "Pulsus  est  dilatatio  arteriaj,  quoe  completione  fit  spi- 
ritus  a  corde  emissi." — (Ibid.) 


16  CIRCULATION   OF  THE   BLOOD. 

The  first  modern  anatomists. 

The  septum  which  separates  the  two  ventricles 
is  not  perforated.  How  did  it  happen  then  that 
Galen  believed  it  to  be  perforated — saw  it  thus? 
Because  he  imagined  it  necessary  that  it  should 
be  so! 

According  to  Galen  the  veins,  as  well  as  the 
arteries,  carried  blood  to  the  extremities ;  but  ac- 
cording to  him  there  were  two  kinds  of  blood — the 
spiritual  blood,  the  blood  of  the  arteries  and  of  the 
left  ventricle,  and  the  venous  blood,  the  blood  pro- 
perly speaking,  the  blood  of  the  veins  and  of  the 
right  side  of  the  heart.1  And  this  was  another 
step  in  advance.  It  was  the  first  indication  of  the 
two  kinds  of  blood  now  so  well  distinguished,  the 
red  blood  and  the  black  blood, — the  arterial  and 
the  venous  blood, — the  blood  which  has,  and  that 
which  has  not  been  purified  by  respiration. 

There  were  then,  according  to  Galen,  two  kinds 
of  blood;  and  each  kind  had  a  destination  peculiar 
to  itself:  the  spiritual  blood  nourished  organs  of 
light  and  delicate  texture,  such  as  the  lungs;  the 
venous  blood  nourished  those  heavy  and  gross,  such 
as  the  liver.2  The  spirit,  the  purest  part  of  the 

(1)   Sinistro  veiitriculo,  quern  medici  spirituosum  ap- 

pellare  consueverunt    altero  ventriculo,  quem  sangui- 

neum  appellant. — (De  i*su  partium,  lib.  vi,  p.  150.) 

(2)  Ut  similem,  ad   sui  nutritionem,  postulent  sanguinem, 
verbi  gratia,  hepar  yiscerum  omnium  gravissimum  ac  densis- 


HISTORY   OF  THE   DISCOVERY.  17 

blood,1  was  only  formed  in  the  left  ventricle;2  it 
being  necessary,  however,  that  even  the  venous 
blood  should  contain  a  certain  proportion  of  spirit3 
in  order  to  fit  it  for  the  purposes  of  nutrition,  it 
was  also  necessary  that  the  two  ventricles,  the  ven- 
tricle of  the  spirit  and  the  ventricle  of  the  blood, 
should  communicate  with  each  other,  and  this  com- 
munication was  held  to  take  place  by  means  of 
foraminse  in  the  septum  which  separated  them.4 

Galen,  therefore,  held  the  septum  to  be  perforated 
because  he  had  imagined  a  system  which  rendered 
a  communication  between  the  ventricles  necessary. 
The  early  modern  anatomists  believed  the  septum 
perforated  because  Galen  had  said  it  was  so  ! 

simum,  et  pulmo  levissimus  ac   rarissimus  Quo  fac- 

tum   est  tit  hepar  quidem  a   venis  fere  soils,    pulmo 

vero  ab  arteriis'nutriretur. — (Ibid.,  p.  155.) 

(1)  Spiritus  exhalatio  qutedam  est  sanguinis  benigni  

(Ibid.) 

(2)  Spiritus  receptaculum,  sinister  ventriculus  (De 

anat.  administ.,  lib.  vii.,  p.  95.) 

(3)  Demonstratum  nobis  alio  loco  est,  omnia  esse  in  omni- 
bus   ;  atque  arterise  quidem  tenuern  ac  purum  et  va- 

porosum  participant  sanguinem,  vente  autem  paucum,  eum- 

demque  caliginosum  aerem  (De  usu  partium,  lib.  vi., 

p.  154.) 

(4)  Quaj  igitur  in  corde  appirent  foramina,  ad  ipsius  po- 
tissimum  medium  septum,  praedicUe  communitatis  gratia,  ex- 
titerunt. — (Ibid.,  p.  155.) 


10  CIRCULATION   OF  THE  BLOOD. 

Mondini  said  the  septum  was  perforated ; J  Vas- 
seus,  or  Le  Vasseur,  to  whom  I  shall  refer  again, 
said  the  same  as  Mondini;2  twenty  others  made 
the  same  statement.  Berengcr  de  Carpi  first 
avowed  that  these  openings  were  only  to  be  seen 
with  difficulty;5  and  Vesalius,  the  great  Vesalius, 
the  father  of  modern  anatomy,  Vesalius  alone  dared 
say  that  they  did  not  exist.  He  did  not,  however, 
arrive  at  that  point  directly.  lie  commenced  by 
repeating,  like  all  the  others,  that  the  hlood  passed 
from  one  ventricle  to  the  other  through  openings 
in  the  septum*  But  soon,  carried  away  by  the 
force  of  the  truth  which  he  saw,  the  fact  which  he 

(1)  He   calls    the   septum    the   middle  ventricle:     Nam    iste 
ventriculus  non  est  una  concavitas,  sed  plnres  concavilates 

parva;,  ut  sanguis  qui  vadit  ad  ventriculum  sinistrum 

a  dextro,  cum  debeat  fieri  spiritus,  continue  subtilletur  

— (Anatomia  Mundini.     Ed.  of  Drjander,  1540,  p.  38.) 

(2)  "Within  the  heart  there  are  two  sinuses  or  ventricles 
separated  by  a  partition,  called  in  Latin  septum,  through  the 
openings  in  which  (lie  spirit  and  the  blood  have  communica- 
tion."— (French  translation,  ly  Canappe,  p.  46.) 

(3)  In   homine  cum   maxima  difficultate  videntur. — (Com- 
mentaria  super  Anat.   Mundini,   p.  341,  ed.  1521.)     Sylvius,  or 
Dubois,  also  did  not  seem  willing  to  admit  the  foramina;  of  the 
septum;  at  least  he  does  not  speak  of  them;  he  contents  him- 
self with  saying — Sunt  cordi  ventres  duo,  carnis  ipsius  por- 
tione  media,  ceu  diaphragmate  quodam  secret!. — (Ed.  1555.) 

(4)  Maxima  portione  per  ventriculorum  cordis  septl 

poros  in  sinistrum  ventriculum  desudare  sinit   (  Ve- 

salii  Opera  Omnia  Anatomica,  ed.  d'Albinus,  1725,  t.  i.,  p.  517.) 


HISTORY  OF   THE  DISCOVERY.  19 

touched,  he  declared  that  he  only  made  that  state- 
ment in  order  to  accommodate  himself  to  the  teach- 
ings of  Galen;1  for,  in  truth,  the  structure  of  the 
septum  is  no  less  solid  or  compact  than  the  rest  of 
the  heart,  and  through  this  dense  tissue  there  can 
not  pass  a  single  drop  of  blood.2 

Galen  showed  that  the  arteries  contain  blood  as 
•well  as  the  veins,  and  this  was  the  first  step;  he 
pointed  out  the  distinction  between  the  two  kinds 
of  blood,  the  arterial  and  the  venous,  and  this  was 
the  indication  of  a  second  step;  Vesalius  had  just 
shown  that  the  partition  between  the  two  ventricles 
is  not  perforated  and  this  was  the  third  step;  one 
step  more  and  the  pulmonary  circulation  was  dis- 
covered. This  step  was  made  by  Servetus. 

Servetus  and  the  pulmonary  circulation. 

I  shall  carefully  guard  against  making  any  allu- 
sion to  the  theological  works  of  Servetus,  which  I 

(1)  In   cordis    constructions    rations,    ipsiusque   partium 
usu  recensendis.magmi  ex  parte  Galeni  dogmatibus  sermonem 
accommodavi. —  (Ibid.,  p.  519.) 

(2)  Hand  levitur  studiosis  expendendum  est  ventriculorum 
cordis  interstitium,  aut  septum,  ipsumve  sinistri  ventriculi  dex- 
trum  latus,  quod  asque  crassum,  compactumque  ac  densum  est, 
atque  reliqua  cordis  pars  sinistrum  ventriculum  coiuplectens, 

adeo  ut  ignorem  qui  per  septi  illius  substantiam  ex 

dextro  veiitriculo  in  sinistrum  vel  minimum  quid  sanguinis 
assumi  possit. —  (Ibid.,  p.  519.) 


20  CIRCULATION   OF  THE  BLOOD. 

have  never  read.1  Perhaps  in  his  quar:els  with 
Calvin  he  was  as  much  at  fault  as  his  adversary, 
but,  at  least,  he  did  not  burn  Calvin. 

I  shall  confine  myself  to  the  following  passage 
upon  the  pulmonary  circulation,  and  I  maintain 
that  this  admirable  passage  alone  is  sufficient  to 
give  to  its  author  an  illustrious  place  among  men 
of  science. 

The  communication,  says  Servetus,  (that  is  to 
say,  the  passage  of  the  blood  from  the  right  to 
the  left  ventricle,)  does  not  take  place  through  the 
median  partition  of  the  ventricles,  as  is  generally 
supposed;  but  by  a  long  and  wonderful  route  the 
blood  is  conducted  through  the  lungs,  where  it  is 
agitated  and  prepared,  where  it  becomes  yellow, 
and  passes  from  the  arterial  vein  into  the  venous 
artery:  et  a  vend  arteriosd  in  arteriam  venosam 
transfunditur. 

I  stop  a  moment  at  these  words,  et  a  vend  arte- 
riosd in  arteriam  venosam  transfunditur,  for  they 
express  the  new  arid  complete  idea. 

Even  while  supposing  the  inter-ventricular  sep- 
tum to  be  perforated  Galen  knew  very  well  that 
the  blood  of  the  right  ventricle  passed,  at  least  in 
part,  through  the  pulmonary  artery  into  the  lungs.2 

(1)  I  have  had  occasion  to  read  some  of  them  since  this  was 
•written  as  will  be  seen  farther  on. 

(2)  Atqui  orificia  omnia  sunt  numero  quatnor,  duo  in  utro- 
que  ventriculo:  in  sinistro  unum  quod  spiritum  de  pulmone 


HISTORY   OF  THE   DISCOVERY.  21 

Vesalius  was  also  aware  of  it.1  But  this  was  only 
the  half  of  the  truth. 

The  entire  an:l  complete  idea  necessary  to  estab- 
lish the  pulmonary  circulation  was  to  understand 
that  the  blood  pnssed  from  the  pulmonary  artery 
into  the  pulmonary  veins  ;  that  the  blood  leaving 
the  right  heart  by  the  pulmonary  artery,  returned 
to  the  left  heart  by  the  pulmonary  veins;  that  the 
blood  left  the  heart  and  returned  to  the  heart;  that 
there  was,  consequently,  a  circuit,  circulation;  and 
this  idea  of  the  circulation,  so  grand  and  so  new, 
was  first  formed  by  Servetus. 

In  order  to  understand  how  this  communication 
takes  place  by  the  lungs,  said  Servetus,  we  must 
learn  the  connection,  the  multitude  of  unions  of 
the  arterial  vein  with  the  venous  artery  in  this 

immittit,  alterum  quod  educit:  reliqua  duo  in  dextro,  alterum 
quod  in  pulmoneni  sanguinem  emittit  alterum  quod  e  jecore 
admittit.  —  (De  H'pp.  et  Plat,  decret.,  lib.  vi.,  p.  264.) 


(1)  Dexter  ventriculus   .........  a  cava   vena,  quoties   cor 

dilatatur  ac  disteuditur,  magnum  sanguinis  vim  attrahit, 
quern,  adjuvantibus  forte  ad  hoc  ventriculi  foveis,  excoquit: 
ac  suo  calore  attenuans,  levioremque,  et  qui  aptius  irnpetu 
postmodum  per  arterias  ferri  possit  reddens,  maxima  portione 
per  veutriculorum  cordis  septi  poros  in  sinistrum  vemriculum 
desudare  sinit  (it  is  seen  on  page  19  that  he  admitted  these 
openings  in  the  septum  only  out  of  complaisance  to  Galen), 
reliquam  autem  ejus  sanguinis  partern,  dum  cor  contrahitur 
arctaturque,  per  veuam  arterialem  in  pulmonem  delegat.— 
(  Vesalii,  Op.  omnia  anat.  Ed.  1725,  t.  i.,  p.  517.) 


22  CmCULATION  OF   THE   BLOOD. 

organ.  And  this  view  of  the  manner  of  commu- 
nication is  confirmed  by  the  calibre  of  the  arterial 
vein,  which  would  not  be  so  large,  nor  carry  such 
an  amount  of  blood  to  the  lung,  if  nutrition  alone 
was  to  be  provided  for,  especially  since  in  the 
embryo  (and  this  is  an  exceedingly  ingenious 
remark,)  the  lung  is  nourished  through  other  chan- 
nels and  this  blood  does  not  reach  it.  It  must 
be  then  for  another  purpose  that  the  blood  is  sent 
in  such  abundance  from  the  heart  to  the  lungs 
immediately  after  birth.  It  is  sent  there  to  be 
mixed  with  air,  for  it  is  not  air  alone,  but  air 
mixed  with  blood,  that  passes  into  the  venous 
artery.  The  yellow  color  is  given  to  the  blood 
by  the  lungs  and  not  by  the  heart.1 

(1)  Fit  autem  communicatio  haec  non  per  parictem  cordis 
medium,  ut  vulgo  creditor,  sed  magno  artificio  a  dextro  cordis 
ventriculo,  longo  per  pulmones  ductu,  agitatur  sanguis  sub- 
tilis;  a  pulmonibus  prscparatur;  flavus  efficitur,  et  a  vena 
arteriosa  in  arteriam  venosam  transfunditur. — (Christianitmi 
Reslitutio :  Totius  Ecclesise  apostolicoe  ad  sua  limina  vocatio, 
in  integrum  restitutte  cognitione  Dei,  fidei  Christi,  justifica- 
tionis  nostrte,  regenerations  baptism!  et  coencu  Domini 
manducationis;  restitutio  denique  nobis  regno  ccclesti, 
Uabylonis  impise  captivitate  solutil,  et  Antichristo  cum  suis 
penitus  destructo. —  Vienna^  Allobrogum,  MDLIII.) 

[In  an  appendix  to  the  work  of  M.  Flourens  are  some  ten  or 
twelve  pages,  being  all  the  physiological  parts,  of  this  ein- 
gular  work  of  Servetus,  so  interesting  in  the  history  both 
of  physiology  and  of  theology.  As  full  extracts  are  made 


mSTORY  OF  TIIE  DISCOVERY.  23 

All  this  is  full  of  sagacity,  acuteness  and  pene- 
tration. The  connection  or  union  of  the  pulmona- 
ry artery  with  the  pulmonary  rein  in  the  lungs 
by  an  infinite  number  of  branches ;  the  calibre  of 
the  pulmonary  artery,  which  would  be  much  too 
large  if  it  served  only  for  the  nutrition  of  the 
lungs ;  the  nutrition  of  this  organ  in  the  embryo 
without  the  blood  of  the  pulmonary  artery,  which 
indeed  does  not  then  transmit  any ;  all  these  are 
most  excellent  and  decisive  reasons — the  same 
which  we  give  now—  the  true  ones. 

Let  us  remark  again  upon  the  change  of  color 
in  the  blood  which  takes  place  not  in  the  heart, 
but  in  the  lung,  and  is  due  to  the  action  of  the  air. 
We  know  now  that  it  is  not  the  whole  of  the  air 
which  produces  this  change,  but  the  oxygen  alone. 
But  except  that,  except  the  analysis  of  the  air, 
which  has  been  the  work  of  modern  chemistry, 
how  near  these  ideas  were  to  the  truth !  Servetus 
not  only  discovered  the  true  route  of  the  blood 
from  one  side  of  the  heart  to  the  other  through 
the  lungs;  he  also  discovered  the  true  place  of 

concerning  the  author's  discovery  of  the  pulmonary  circula- 
tion, and  his  peculiar  views  are  fully  explained  in  the  text, 
it  has  not  been  deemed  necessary  to  re-print  here  that 
additional  amount  of  matter  not  so  immediately  connected 
•with  the  subject.  All  the  quotations  from  Servetus  which 
follow  are  taken  from  the  work,  the  title  of  which  is  given 
above  in  full. —  Tr.~\ 


24  CIRCULATION    OF  THE  BLOOD. 

sanguification,  of  the  transformation  of  the  blood, 
of  its  change  from  black  blood  to  red.  Galen 
placed  the  seat  of  sanguification  in  the  liver ; 
Servetus  first  located  it  in  the  lungs;  a  truth 
•which  was  not  then  remarked,  •which  was  not 
comprehended  until  long  afterward,  and  which  in- 
deed did  not  receive  its  full  development  until 
very  recent  times  by  the  experiments  of  Goodwin 
and  Bichat.1 

The  passage  of  the  blood  from  one  ventricle 
into  the  other,  continues  Servetus,  is  not  through 
the  septum ;  in  the  same  manner  that  the  blood 
of  the  vena  porta  passes  into  the  vena  cava 
through  the  liver,  so  the  blood  of  the  arterial  vein 
passes  into  the  venous  artery  through  the  lungs.2 

(1)  Quod  ita  per  pulmones  fiat  communicatio  et  prseparatio 
docet  conjunctio  varia  et  communicatio  venae  arterio-sso  cum 
arteria  venosa  in    pulmonibus.     Confirmat    hoc    magnitude 
insignis  vence  arteriosse,  qua;  nee  talis,  nee  tanta  facta  esset, 
nee  tantam  a  corde  ipso  vim  purissimi  sanguinis  in  pulmones 
emitteret,  ob  solum  eorum  nutrimentum,  nee  cor  pulmonibus 
liiic    ratione   serviret,    quum    prsesertim    antea   in    embryone 
solerent   pulmones   ipsi   aliunde    nutriri . .  .  Ergo    ad    alium 
usum    effunditur    sanguis    a   corde   in   pulmones   hora    ipsa 
nativitatis,  et  tarn  copiosus.     Item  a  pulmonibus  ad  cor  non 
simplex    aer,    sed   mixtus    sanguine   mittitur  per   arterium 
venosam.     Ergo  in  pulmonibus  fit  mixtio.     Flavus  ille  color 
a  pulmonibus  datur  sanguini  spirituoso,  non  a  corde. 

(2)  Demum  paries  ille  medius,  quum  sit  vasorum   et  facul- 
tatum  expers,  non  est  aptus  ad  communicationem  et  elabora- 


HISTORY   OF   THE   DISCOVERT.  25 

A  nearer  approach  to  the  truth  could  not  have 
been  made  without  finding  it.  Finally,  said 
Servetus  in  closing,  and  he  could  safely  say  it,  if 
any  one  will  compare  these  things  with  what 
Galen  has  written  in  the  sixth  and  seventh  books 
of  his  work,  De  usu  partium,  he  will  see  clearly 
the  truth  which  Galen  did  not  perceive.1 

Columbus. 

Six  years  after  Servetus,  Realdo  Columbus,  one  of 
the  best  anatomists  Padua  ever  had,  (Padua  which 
had  so  many  of  them ;  Yesalius,  Columbus,  Fal- 
lopius,  Fabricius  ab  Aquapendente ! )  Realdo  Col- 
umbus discovered  again  and  independently  2  the 
pulmonary  circulation. 

Between  the  two  ventricles,  said  he,  is  the  sep- 
tum through  which  it  is  believed  the  blood  passes 

tionem  illam...  Eodem  artificio,  quo  in  hepate  fit  transfusio 
a  vena  porta  ad  venam  cavam  propter  sanguinem,  fit  etiam 
in  pulmone  transfusio  a  vena  arteriosa  ad  arteriam  venosam 
propter  spiritum  (or  more  exactly,  propter  scnguinem  spiritu- 
OSMTO.) 

(1)  Si  quis  hsec  conferat  cum  iis  quse  scribit  Galenus,   lib. 
vi  et  vii.  De  usu  partium,  veritatem  penitus  intelliget,  ab  ipso 
Galeno  non  animadversam. 

(2)  See  in  chap,  iv  what  is  said  farther  upon  this  point. 
Neither  Columbus,  nor  those  who  came  immediately  after  him 
could  have  been  acquainted  with  the  work  of  Servetus. 


26  CIRCULATION   OF  THE  BLOOD. 

from  the  right  to  the  left ;  but  this  is  a  great 
mistake,  for  the  blood  is  carried  by  the  arterial 
vein  into  the  lungs ;  from  thence  it  passes,  with  the 
air,  by  the  venous  artery  into  the  left  ventricle  of 
the  heart,  which  no  one  has  yet  seen :  quod  nemo 
hactenus  aut  animadverf.it,  aut  scriptum  reliquit, 
licet  maxime  sit  ab  omnibus  animadvertendum.1 

Coesalpinus. 

Finally,  Csesalpinus  described  in  his  turn,  and 
without  citing  Columbus,  (whom  he  surely  did  not 
know,  since  he  does  not  allude  to  him :  great 
merit  is  always  honest,)  the  pulmonary  circulation  ; 
and  this  time  not  merely  the  fact  appears  but 
also  the  word.  Caesalpinus  formally  named  the 
passage  of  the  blood  from  one  side  of  the  heart  to 
the  other  by  the  lungs,  the  circulation. 

This  circulation,  said  he,  which  carries  the  blood 
from  the  right  heart  through  the  lung  into  the  left, 
corresponds  perfectly  with  the  disposition  of  the 

(1)  Inter  hos  ventriculos  septum  adest,  per  quod  fere  omnes 
existimant  sanguini  i\  dextro  ventriculo  ad  sinistrum  adi- 
tum  patefieri ;  ...  sed  longa  errant  via  :  nam  sanguis  per 
arteriosam  venam  ad  pulmonem  fertur,  ibique  attenuatur ; 
deinde  cum  aere  una  per  arteriam  venalem  ad  sinistrum 
cordis  ventriculum  defartur :  quod  nemo  hactenus  aut  ani- 
madvertit,  aut  scriptum  reliquit,  licet  maxime  sit  ab  om- 
nibus animadvertendum.  (Realdi  Columbi,  De  re  anatomicd, 
edition  1572,  p.  325.) 


HISTORY   OF   THE   DISCOVERY.  27 

parts.  For  each  ventricle  has  two  vessels,  one  by 
which  the  blood  arrives  and  the  other  by  which  it 
departs  ;  the  vessel  by  which  the  blood  arrives  at 
the  right  ventricle  is  the  vena  cava,  that  by  which 
it  leaves  is  the  pulmonary  artery ;  the  vessels  which 
pour  the  blood  into  the  left  ventricle  are  the 
pulmonary  veins,  the  vessel  which  affords  it  exit 
is  the  aorta.1 

Thus  then  was  the  pulmonary  circulation  dis- 
covered. 

Cresalpinus  and  the  general  circulation. 

The  pulmonary  circulation  was  discovered ;  but 
so  far,  until  Csesalpinus,  not  a  word  had  been 
uttered  in  regard  to  the  general  circulation,  the 
circulation  of  the  body,  which  we  call  the  greater 
.in  comparison  to  the  pulmonary  which  we  term 
the  lesser. 

(1)  Iluic  sanguinis  circulationi  ex  dextro  cordis  ventriculo 
per  pulmones  in  sinistrum  ejusdem  ventriculum  optime 
respondent  ea  qua?  ex  dissectione  apparent.  Nam  duo  sunt 
vasa  in  dextrum  ventriculnm  desinentia,  duo  etiam  in  si- 
nistrum. Duorum  autem  unum  intromittit  tantum,  alte- 
rum  educit,  membranis  eo  ingenio  constitutis.  Vas  igitur 
intromittens  vena  est  magna  quidem  in  dextro,  qme  cava 
nppellatur;  parva  autem  in  sinistro  ex  pulmone  introdu- 
cens....  Vas  autem  educens  arteria  est  magna  quidem  in 
einistro,  qua:  aorta  appellatur,  parva  autera  in  dextro,  ad- 
pulmones  derivans...  (Andrea?  Coesalpini,  Quceslionum  peri- 
pateficarum,  lib,  v,  p.  125,  edition  des  Junte.  Venise,  1593.) 

3 


28  CIRCULATION    OF   THE   BLOOD. 

Galen  originated  a  very  symmetrical  physiology. 
According  to  him  there  were  four  temperaments, 
the  sanguine,  the  phlegmatic,  the  bilious,  and  the 
atra-bilious ;  and  four  humors,  blood,  phlegm,  bile, 
and  black  bile  ;  he  had  also  three  kinds  of  spirits, 
the  natural,  the  vital,  the  animal;  and  three 
sources  of  these  spirits,  the  liver,  the  heart  and 
the  brain! 

Farther,  the  brain  was  the  origin  of  all  the 
nerves,  the  heart  of  all  the  arteries,  and  the  liver 
of  all  the  veins. 

The  veins,  having  their  source  in  the  liver , 
carried  the  blood  to  all  parts  of  the  body.  Strange 
error !  one  that  the  most  simple  experiment,  or 
even  the  most  simple  attention  to  an  occurrence 
coming  under  daily  observation,  would  have  served 
to  destroy.  For  certainly  bleeding  was  practiced 
every  day,  and  every  day  the  vein  must  have  been 
seen  to  swell  below  and  not  above  the  ligature, . 
showing  that  the  course  of  the  blood  in  the  veins 
was  from  the  extremities  to  the  heart,  and  not 
from  the  heart  to  the  extremities. 

There  is  an  excellent  chapter  in  Vesalius  on  the 
utility  of  experiments  on  living  animals.  Vesalius 
truly  remarks,  that  a  simple  experiment  on  a  living 
animal  will  teach  more  than  long  observation  of 
the  dead  body.  For  instance,  if  one  wishes  to 
know  whether  the  arteries  contain  blood  or  air, 


HISTORY    OF   THE   DISCOVERT.  29 

it  is  only  necessary  to  open  an  artery  in  a  living 
animal,  and  it  is  seen  that  it  contains  blood.1 
Unhappily  Vesalius  stopped  with  the  arteries; 
he  did  not  pass  on  to  the  veins  ;  he  was  content  to 
believe,  in  regard  to  them,  that  a  simple  inspection 
of  the  dead  animal  sufficed  "  to  show  that  they 
carried  the  blood  to  the  extremities."2 

Caesalpinus  was  the  first,  and  the  only  one 
before  Harvey,  who  called  attention  to  the  swelling 
of  the  veins  which  takes  place  below  and  never 
above  the  ligature.  It  is  a  very  curious  thing, 
he  observes,  that  the  veins  become  distended 
below  the  ligature  and  not  above  it.  Those  who 
bleed  patients,  added  he,  are  familiar  with  the 
fact ;  they  always  place  the  ligature  above  the 
place  of  puncture  and  not  below  it :  quaia  tument 
vence  ultra  vinculum  non  citrd ;  which  should  be 
just  the  contrary  if  the  movement  of  the  blood 
was  from  the  heart  toward  the  external  parts  of 
the  body.3 

(1)  Atqurc  ita  levi  negotio  observatur  in  arteriis  sanguinem 
natura  contineri,  si  quando  arteriam  in  vivis  aperimus. 

— (Ibid,  p.  568.) 

(2)  Coeterum  in  venarum  usu   inquirendo,  vix  quoque   vi- 
vorum  sectione  opus  est:  quum  in  mortuis  affatim  discamus 
eas  sanguinem  per  universum  corpus  deferre. — Ibid,  p.  568. 

(3)  Sed  illud  speculatione  dignum  videtur,  propter  quid  ex 
vinculo   intumescunt   venae   ultra  locum   apprehensum,   non 
citra:    quod  experimento  sciunt  qui  venam  secant;  vincu- 


30  CIRCULATION    OF    THE   BLOOD. 

He  says  elsewhere :  the  blood  conducted  to  the 
heart  by  the  veins,  receives  there  its  perfection, 
and  this  perfection  acquired,  it  is  carried  by  the 
arteries  to  all  parts  of  the  body.1  A  better  con- 
ception of  the  general  circulation  could  not  be 
found,  nor  a  better  definition  be  given  in  as  short 
a  sentence. 

Caesalpinus  possessed  a  mind  of  a  superior  order. 
He  was  the  first  among  the  moderns,  who  fully 
appreciated  method  in  classification,  or  classifica- 
tion founded  upon  organism..2  Before  his  time  plants 
were  classified  according  to  their  external  appear- 
ances, their  names,  supposed  medicinal  virtues, 
etc.  In  the  classification  of  plants  by  Caesalpinus, 
all  the  characteristics  are  drawn  from  the  plants 
themselves ;  and  guided  by  a  happy  tact,  he 
recognised  first  the  most  important  organs  and 
those  which  furnish  the  most  important  charac- 
teristics, the  organs  of  fructification,  the  flowers, 

lum  enim  adhibent  citra  locum  sectionis,  non  ultra;  quia 
tument  venae  ultra  vinculum  non  citra.  Debuisset  autem 
opposite  modo  contingere,  si  motus  sanguinis  et  spiritus  a 
visceribus  fit  in  totum  corpus...  (Quaestionum  medicarum, 
lib.  ii,  same  edition,  p.  231.) 

(1)  In  animalibus  videmus  alimentuui  per  venas  duel  ad 
cor  tanquam  ad  officinam  caloris    insiti,  et,  adepta  inibi  ul- 
tima perfectione,  per  arterias  in  universum  corpus   distribui, 
agente   spiritu,  qui  ex  eodem    alimento   in   corde   gignitur. 
(De plantis,  Florence,  1583,  lib.  ii,  cap.  II,  p.  3.) 

(2)  ["  Method  is  the  soul  of  science." — Linnaeus.'] 


HISTORY    OF    THE    DISCOVERY.  31 

fruits  and  grains.  Caesalpinus  has  the  double 
glory  of  having  hecn  the  first  to  give  us  a  method 
in  science,  and  the  first  to  point  out  the  two  cir- 
culations. 

Fabricius  ab  Acquapendente. 

Fabricius  ab  Acquapendente  has  also  two  honors ; 
he  discovered  the  valves  of  the  veins,  and  he  was 
the  teacher  of  Harvey. 

Fabricius  discovered  the  valves  of  the  veins  in 
1574.  He  saw  well  that  they  open  toward  the 
heart.  They  oppose,  therefore,  any  passage  of 
the  blood  from  the  heart  to  the  external  parts  in 
the  veins ;  it  must  go  then  from  the  parts  toward 
the  heart — the  reverse  of  what  takes  place  in  the 
arteries,  which  have  no  valves. 

The  valves  of  the  veins  are  the  anatomical  proof 
of  the  circulation  of  the  blood — the  proof  that  it 
makes  a  circuit,  that  it  returns  upon  itself,  that  it 
circulates.  But  Fabricius  did  not  understand  this 
proof;  he  saw  the  fact,  but  failed  to  draw  from  it 
that  important  deduction  which  was  left  for  the 
genius  of  Harvey. 

Sarpi. 

Something  should  here  be  said  of  Sarpi,  to  whom 
has  been  attributed  both  the  discovery  of  the  circu- 
lation of  the  blood  and  of  the  valves  of  the  veins. 

As  to  the  discovery  of  the  circulation,  his  claim 
is  founded  upon  a  paper  discovered  among  his 


32  CIRCULATION  OF  THE  BLOOD. 

manuscripts  after  his  death  by  Father  Fulgence. 
In  this  paper  we  are  assured  that  Sarpi  describes 
the  circulation  of  the  blood. 

In  regard  to  the  valves,  Gassendi  relates  in  his 
Life  of  Peiresc,  that  Peiresc  told  him  that  the  dis- 
covery of  the  valves  of  the  veins  was  due  to  Sarpi, 
who  confided  it  to  Fabricius.1  But  Fabricius  tells 
us  positively  that  he  discovered  the  valves  of  the 
veins  himself.  They  were,  says  he,  unknown  be- 
fore the  year  1574,  when  I  perceived  them  for  the 
first  time  with  great  joy;  summd  cum  letitid.2 

Fabricius  was  a  man  cf  surpassing  knowledge  in 
anatomy,  and  as  respectable  morally  as  he  was  in- 
tellectually ;  and  he  quotes  Sarpi  elsewhere  in  re- 
gard to  some  observations  he  had  made  upon  the 
action  of  light  on  the  pupil.3  But  we  are  forced 
to  conclude,  with  Tiraboschi,  that  although  Sarpi 

(1)  De  quibus  (valvulis)  ipse  aliquid  inaudierat  ab  Acqua-_ 
pendente,  et  quarum  inventorem  primum  Sarpium  Servitam 
meminerat. — (  Vita  Peyreschii,  lib.  iv.,  p.  222.) 

(2)  De  his  itaque  in  prtesentiii  locuturis,  subit  primum  mi- 
rari  quo  modo  ostiola  hsec  ad  hanc  usque  oetatem  tarn  priscos 
quam  recentiores  anatomicos  adeo  latuerint,  ut  non  solum 
nulla  prorsus  mentio  de  ipsis  facta  sit,  sed  neque  aliquis  prius 
hjcc  viderit  quam  anno  1574,  quo  a  me  summa  cum  laetitia 
inter   dissecandum   observata   fuere. — (De  venarum   Osliolis : 
Hieronymi  Fabrici  ab  Acquapendente  Opera  omnia  anatomica. 
Edition  d'Albinus,  1737,  p.  150.) 

(3)  De  oculo,  visus  organo. — (Same  edition,   p.  229.     The 
quotation  will  be  found  farther  on.) 


HISTORY   OF  THE  DISCOVERY.  33 

may  possibly  have  taken  part  in  the  discovery  of 
the  circulation  of  the  blood,  more  and  other  proof 
of  the  fact  must  be  furnished,  before  it  can  be  con- 
sidered established.1 

Vasseus  or  Le  Vasseur,  and  a  quotation  of  M.  Portal. 

Le  Vasseur  was  a  disciple  of  Jacques  Sylvius  or 
Dubois,  who  was  first  the  master  and  the  very  wor- 
thy master  of  Yesalius,  and  afterward  the  fiercest 
of  his  adversaries. 

Le  Vasseur  wrote  a  small  work  in  Latin,  which 
was  little  if  any  thing  more  than  an  abridgment  of 
the  anatomy  and  physiology  of  Galen.  This  little 
work  passed  through  several  editions,  and  from  the 
first,  was  translated  into  French  by  maitre  Jean 
Canappe,  docteur  en  medecine. 

M.  Portal,  in  his  Histoire  de  ranatomie,  says 
that  Le  Vasseur  "knew  almost  as  much  as  we  do 
of  the  circulation  of  the  blood."  "For  fear,"  adds 
he,  "  that  I  may  be  accused  of  having  mutilated  the 
text  I  will  give  the  author's  own  words : 

Dextrum  ventrieulum,  qui  sanguineus  appellatur, 
vena  cava  ingreditur,  et  vena  arteriosa  egreditur 
quce  in  pulmonem  dispergitur,  sanguinem  elabora- 
tum  confer  ens Sinistro  ventriculo  cordis  qui 

(1)  Io  dunque  non  neghero  al  Sarpi  1'onor  di  questa  sco- 
perta,  ma  bramero  solainente  che  se  ne  possan  produrre  piii 
certe  et  piii  autentiche  pruove. — (Storia  della  letteratura  itul- 
iana}  t.  vii.,  p.  597.) 


34  CIRCULATION   OF  THE  BLOOD. 

caloris  nativi  fons  esf,  et  spirituosus  appellatur,  ar- 
teria  venosa  quce  ex pulmone  ....  M.  Portal  stops 
at  these  words,  quce  ex  pulmone,  and  the  reader, 
following  the  impulse  which  has  been  given  com- 
pletes the  sentence;  which  brings  the  blood  back 
again  from  the  lungs  to  the  heart;  and  consequently 
Le  Vasseur  "  knew  as  much  as  we  do  of  the  circu- 
lation." But  not  at  all!  Le  Vasseur  was  not 
speaking  of  the  blood,  he  was  speaking^of  air! 

Here  is  the  entire  paragraph  which  I  give  from 
the  old  French  of  Canappe : 

"The  vena  cava  empties  into  the  right  ventricle 
•which  is  called  sanguineous,  and  from  which  de- 
parts the  arterial  vein  which  is  dispersed  and  dis- 
tributed to  the  lung  and  carries  the  elaborated 
blood  ....  Into  the  left  ventricle,  which  is  the 
fountain  of  natural  heat,  and  is  called  spiritus,  is 
inserted  the  venous  artery,  which  brings  from  the 
lung,  (and  it  is  at  this  word  that  Portal  stops) 
which  brings  from  the  lung  air  to  the  heart,  and 
evacuates  from  here  the  fuliginous  excrements." 

Harvey. 

When  Harvey  appeared  every  thing  relative  to 
the  circulation  of  the  blood  had  been  indicated  or 
suspected;  nothing  had  been  established.  Nothing 
had  been  established ;  and  this  is  so  true  that  Fa- 
bricius,  who  comes  after  Caesalpinus,  and  who  dis- 
covered the  valves  of  the  veins,  knew  nothing  of 


HISTORY   OF  THE  DISCOVERY.  35 

the  circulation.1  Csesalpinus  himself  who  so  plainly 
perceived  the  two  circulations,  mixed  with  the  idea 
of  the  pulmonary  circulation  the  error  of  a  per- 
forated septum.  Sanguis  partim  per  medium  sep- 
tum, partim  per  medios  pulmones  .  ...  ex  dextro  in 
sinistrum  ventriculum  cordis  transmittitur.2  Serve- 
tus  said  nothing  of  the  general  circulation.  Colum- 
bus repeated,  after  Galen,  the  fictions  of  the  origin 
of  the  veins  in  the  liver3  and  the  transmission 
of  blood  to  the  extremities  by  them.4 

I  admit,  with  Sprengel,  that  nothing  explains 
Harvey  better  than  "his  education  at  Padua."5 

(1)  He  believed  that  the  only  use  of  the  valves  was  to  pre- 
vent too  great  an  accumulation  of  blood  in  the  inferior  parts  of 
the  body,  an  occurrence  which  would  be  attended  with  the 
double  inconvenience  of  too  great  a  supply  to  the  lower  parts 
and  too  small  a  quantity  in  the  upper.    Ea  ratione,  uti  opinor 
a  natuni  genittc,  ut  sanguinem  quadamtenus  remorentur,  ne 
confertim,  ac  fluminis  instar,  aut  ad  pedes,  aut  in  manus  et 
digitos  universus  influat,  colligaturque;    duoque  incommoda 
eveniant,  turn  ut  superiores  artuum  partes  alimenti  penurid 
laborent,  turn    vero   manus   et   pedes  tumore   perpetuo   pre- 
mantur. — (Loc.  cit.,  p.  150.) 

(2)  Qucest.  peripatet. — (Lib.  V.,  p.  126.) 

(3)  Est  igitur  jecur  omnium  venarum  caput,  fons,  origo  et 
radix,  p.  300. 

(4)  Venae  nihil  aliud  sunt  quam  vasa  concava   ...  ut 

sanguinem  ad  singula  membra  deferant  fabrefacta,  p.  305, 

(5)  Sprengel's  History  of  Medicine,  French  translation  by 
Jourdan.    Paris,  1815,  torn,  iv.,  p.  87. 

4 


36  CIRCULATION  OF  THE  BLOOD. 

Undoubtedly  this  education  at  Padua  was  a  piece 
of  good  fortune  for  Harvey,  but  it  was  also,  if  I 
may  be  allowed  so  to  express  myself,  a  piece  of 
good  fortune  for  the  circulation  to  pass  into  the 
hands  of  Harvey,  the  man  most  capable  of  study- 
ing it,  of  investigating  it,  of  comprehending  it  in 
all  its  relations,  and  of  placing  it  in  its  true  light 
before  the  world. 

Harvey  has  been  reproached  for  not  citing  his 
predecessors;  but  he  quotes  Fabricius  who  discov- 
ered the  valves  without  perceiving  their  uses ; l  he 
cited  Columbus  who  had  most  strongly  combatted 
the  error  of  the  perforated  septum;2  finally  he 

(1)  Clarissimus  Hieronymus  Fabricius  ab  Acquapendente, 

peritissimus  anatomicus  et  venerabilis  senex,  primus 

in  venis  membraneas  valvulus  delineavit,  figura  sigmoides,  vel 
semilunares    portiunculas    tunicse   interioris   venarum,  emi- 
nentes  et  tenuissimas Harum  valvularum  usum  in- 
ventor non  est  assecutus,  nee  alii  addiderunt;  non  est  enim 
ne  pondere  deorsum    sanguia  in  inferiora  totus  ruat:  sunt 
namque  in  jugularibus  deorsum  spectantes,  et  sanguinem  sur- 
eum  prohibentes  ferri :  nam  ubique  spectant  a  radicibus  ven- 

arum  versus  cordis   locum  (Gulielmi  Harvei  Uxer- 

citatio  anatomica  de  motu  cordis  et  sanguinis,  cap.  xiii.) 

(2)  Cur  non  iisdem  argumentis,  de  transitu  sanguinis  in 
adultis  per  pulmones,  fidem  similem  habent,  et  cum  Columbo, 
peritissimo,  doctissimoque  anatomico,  idem  asserunt,  et  cre- 
dunt  ex  amplitudine,  et  fabrica  vasorum  pulmonum  ?    Arteria 
enim  venosa,  et  similiter  ventriculus,  repleti  sunt  semper  san- 
guine, quern  venis  hue  venisse  necesse  est,  nulla  alia  quam 
per  pulmones  semita,  ut  et  ille,  et  nos  ex  ante  dictis  et  autop- 
eia,  aliisque  argumentis  palam  esse  existimamus. — (Cap.  vii.) 


HISTORY   OF  THE  DISCOVERY.  37 

came  from  Padua  where  the  state  of  the  question 
was  fully  understood,  where  every  thing  which  had 
been  said  upon  the  circulation  was  known  by  all. 

Harvey's  work  is  a  master-piece.  This  little 
book  of  a  hundred  pages  is  the  most  beautiful  vol- 
ume on  physiology.  Harvey  commenced  with  the 
movements  of  the  heart;  and  first,  he  remarked 
that  the  auricle  and  the  ventricle  of  each  side  of  the 
heart  contract  successively.  When  the  right  auri- 
cle contracts,  the  bloo'd  passes  into  the  right  ven- 
tricle ;  when  the  right  ventricle  contracts,  the  blood 
passes  into  the  pulmonary  artery;  from  the  pul- 
monary artery  it  passes  into  the  pulmonary  veins ; 
from  thence  it  goes  into  the  left  auricle  which 
contracts  and  forces  it  into  the  left  ventricle,  the 
contractions  of  this  ventricle  expel  it  through  the 
aorta  into  all  the  arteries  of  the  body  and  from 
them  it  is  collected  by  the  veins  and  returned  to 
the  heart  from  whence  it  started.  At  each  passage 
from  one  cavity  into  another  he  observed  there 
were  valves,  membranes,  little  gates,  (ostiola,  as 
Fabricius  calls  them),  which  open  to  allow  the  blood 
to  pass  one  way  and  close  to  prevent  its  passage 
in  the  opposite  direction.  The  valves  of  the  right 
auricle  allow  the  blood  to  pass  into  the  ventricle 
but  prevent  its  return  into  the  auricle ;  the  valves 
of  the  ventricle  allow  it  to  pass  into  the  pulmonary 
artery  but  prevent  it  from  coming  back  into  itself; 
on  the  left  side  the  valves  of  the  auricle  allow  its 


38  CIRCULATION  OF   THE  BLOOD. 

passage  into  the  ventricle  but  not  backward,  and 
those  of  the  ventricle  permit  its  onward  course  into 
the  aorta  and  in  no  other  direction;  the  valves  of 
the  veins  present  no  obstruction  to  its  course  to- 
ward the  heart  but  bar  its  passage  back  toward  the 
arteries. 

After  the  heart,  came  the  arteries.  Galen 
attributed  the  pulsations  of  the  arteries  to  a  pulsifio 
virtue,  which  they  derived  from  the  heart  with  their 
tunics.  He  made  an  experiment  to  prove  this 
statement,  but  he  made  it  badly.  He  opened  an 
artery  and  introduced  a  tube  through  the  opening ; 
he  then  tied  the  artery  over  the  tube  and  as  he 
tied  it  too  tightly  the  blood  ceased  to  flow,  or  flowed 
only  in  very  feeble  jets;  the  artery  ceased  to  beat 
below  the  ligature  and  Galen  concluded,  therefore, 
that  the  beating  of  the  arteries  depended  upon  a 
pulsific  virtue  drawn  by  their  coats  from  the  heart, 
since  a  simple  ligature  sufficed  to  prevent  the  puls- 
ation in  all  that  part  of  the  artery  on  its  distal 
side.1 

(1)  Arteriam  unam  e1  magnis  et  conspicuis  quampiam,  si 
voles,  nudabis;  primoque  pelle  remota  ipsam  ab  adjacent! 
suppositoque  corpore  tamdiu  separare  non  graveris  quoad 
filum  circum  immittere  valeas;  deinde  secundum  longitu- 
dinem  arteriam  incide,  calamumque  et  concavum  et  pervium 
in  foramen  intrude,  vel  seneam  aliquam  fistulam,  quo  et  vul- 
nus  obturetur,  et  sanguis  exilire  non  possit.  Quoadusque  sic 
se  arteriam  habere  conspicies,  ipsam  totam  pulsare  videbis : 
cum  primum  vero  obductum  filum  in  laqucum  contrahcns  ar- 


HISTORY  OF  THE  DISCOVERY.  39 

Harvey  did  not  repeat  the  experiment  of  Galen. 
It  is  too  complicated,  and  he  believed  it  scarcely 
possible.1  He  contented  himself  with  more  simple 
observations.  He  saw  that  when  an  artery  was 
opened  the  blood  came  out  in  unequal  jets,  alter- 
nately stronger  and  feebler;  he  observed  that  the 
stronger  jets  always  corresponded  with  the  diastole 
of  the  artery  and  not  with  the  systole ;  he  concluded 
that  it  was  the  impulse,  the  shock  of  the  blood 
which  distended  the  artery  and  caused  it  to  beat. 
If  the  artery  dilated  of  its  own  inherent  power  it 
could  not  expel  the  blood  with  the  greatest  force 
at  the  moment  of  greatest  dilatation.2 

Harvey  profited  farther  by  a  case  of  ossification 
of  the  femoral  artery  which  came  under  his  obser- 

terine  tunicas  calamo  obstrinxeris,  non  ampliu9  arteriam  ultra, 
laqueum  pulsare  videbis,  etiarnsi  spiritus  et  sanguis  ad  arte- 
riam, quaa  est  ultra  filum,  sicuti  prius  faciebat,  per  concavita- 
tem  calami  feratur;  quod  si  propterea  pulsabant  arteria),  pul- 
Barent  nunc  partes  qua)  sunt  ultra  laqueum,  sed  non  pulsant: 
igitur  perspicuum  est,  quum  moveri  posse  desinunt,  non  prop- 
ter  spiritum  in  concavitatibus  discurrentem,  sed  ob  virtutem 
in  tunicas  transmissam,  arterias  a  corde  moveri. — (An  sanguis 
in  arteriis  naturd  contineatur,  p.  62.) 

(1)  Nee  ego  feci  experimentum  Galeni,  nee  recte  posse  fieri 
vivo  corpore  ob  impetuosi  sanguinis  ex  arteria  eruptionem 
puto (Prosmium.) 

(2)   Sed  et  in  arteriotomia  et  vulneribus  contrarium 

manifestum  est.     Sanguis  enim  saliendo  ab  arteriis  profundi- 
tur  cum  iinpetu,  modo  longius,  modo  propius  vicissim  prosi- 
liendo,  et  saltus  semper  est  in  arteria>   diastole  et  non  in 


40  CIRCULATION   OF  THE  BLOOD. 

vation ;  the  artery  pulsated  below  the  ossification ; 
the  ossification  did  not  prevent  the  transmission  of 
the  pretended  pulsific  virtue,  or  rather  no  such  vir- 
tue existed;  the  arterial  pulsation  is  only  due  then 
to  the  movement  of  the  blood, — solely  to  the  im- 
pulse of  the  blood  against  the  walls  of  the  artery.1 

systole.  Quo  clare  apparet  impulsu  sanguinis  arteriam  dis- 
tendi.  Ipsa  enim  dum  distenditur,  non  potest  sanguinem 
tanta  vi  projicere  (Ibid.) 

(1)  Sed  quo  clarius,  quod  in  dubio  est  appareat,  pulsificum 
vim  non  per  arteriarum  tunicas  a  corde  manare,  habeo,  e  no- 
bilissimi  veri  cadavere,  arterice  descendentes  portionem,  cum 
duobus  cruralibus  ramis,  spithamaa  longitudine,  exemtam,  in 
os  fistulosum  conversam ;  per  cujus  cavum,  dum  vivebat  no- 
bilissimus  vir,  descendens  arteriosus  sanguis  in  pedes  sub- 
ditas  arterias  suo  impulsu  agitabat ;  in  quo  tamen  casu  arteria 
idem  passa,  tanquam  si  super  canaliculum  fistulosum  constricta 
et  ligata  foret  (secundem  Galeni  experimentum)  ut  neque 
dilatari,  eo  loco,  neque  arctari  ut  follis,  neque  vim  pulsificam 
a  corde  inferioribus  et  subditis  arteriis  communicare,  aut  per 
soliditatum  ossis  deducere  facultatum,  quam  non  susceperat, 
potuerit.  Nihilominus  inferioris  arteriag  pulsum  agitari  in 
cruribus  et  pedibus  optime  menimi,  dum  vivebat,  me  saepissime 

observasse  Quare  in  illo  nobilissimo  viro  necesse  in- 

feriores  arterias  ab  impulsu  sanguinis,  ut  utres,  dilatataa 
fuisse,  non  ut  folles  ab  expansione  tunicarum. — (Exercitatio 
allero  ad  J.  Riolanum.)  But  this  is  not  all.  I  have  repeated 
the  experiment  of  Galen ;  far  from  being  scarcely  possible  as 
Harvey  believed,  it  is  not  even  very  difficult.  I  have  opened 
the  aorta  of  a  sheep  and  introduced  a  quill,  I  have  tied  the 
artery  over  this  tube  and  have  seen  the  blood  continue  to 
pour  out  through  it  (which  certainly  did  not  take  place  in 
Galen's  experiment,  or  at  least  only  partially,  either  on  ac- 


HISTORY   OF  THE  DISCOVERY.  41 

From  the  arteries  Harvey  passed  to  the  veins; 
and  it  is  from  their  valves  that  he  drew  the  impor- 
tant deduction  to  which  I  have  already  alluded, 
viz :  that  they  allow  to  the  blood  but  one  course, 
movement  only  in  the  direction  toward  which  the 
valves  open,  a  movement  from  the  external  parts 
of  the  body  toward  the  heart. 

Finally  Harvey  made  his  experiments ;  they  were 
few  but  decisive,  and  in  this  is  shown  his  genius. 

When  a  ligature  is  tied  lightly  around  an  ex- 
tremity the  blood  is  arrested  in  the  veins  alone 
because  they  alone  are  superficial;  when  the  liga- 
ture is  tied  tightly  the  blood  is  also  stopped 
in  the  arteries  which  lie  deeper. 

When  a  vein  is  tied  the  swelling  takes  place 
below  the  ligature ;  when  an  artery  is  tied  it  takes 
place  above;  the  blood  then  flows  in  directly  oppo- 
tite  directions  in  the  arteries  and  veins;  it  flows 
from  the  extremities  to  the  heart  in  the  latter,  and 
from  the  heart  to  the  extremities  in  the  former.1 

count  of  the  ligature  having  been  too  tight  or  because  the  tube 
became  obstructed);  the  blood  continued  to  flow  and  the 
artery  continued  to  beat  below  as  well  as  above  the  ligature. 
The  pulsative  faculty  of  Galen  is  not  then  wholly  imaginary. 
The  blood  distends  the  artery,  and  because  it  is  distended  it 
pulsates.  (See  experiments  upon  the  pulsations  or  movements 
of  the  arteries,  in  my  Recherches  experimentales  sur  leg  propri* 
etes  et  lesfonctions  du  systeme  nerveux;  Paris,  1842. 

(1)  In  my  lectures  at  the  Jardin  des  Plantes,  I  make  the  fol- 
lowing experiment,  under  the  eyes  of  my  pupils,  to  illustrate 


4Z  CIRCULATION   OP  THE   BLOOD. 

When  any  artery  whatever  is  opened,  and  the 
blood  allowed  to  flow  freely,  all  the  blood  of  the 
body  is  lost  through  this  opening;  then  all  parts 
of  the  circulating  system  communicate  with  one 
another,  heart,  arteries,  and  veins. 

A  moment's  reflection,  in  truth,  upon  the  mar- 
velous rapidity  of  the  movement  of  the  blood  will 
convince  one  that  it  must  necessarily  be  thus ;  for 
scarcely  has  the  blood  arrived  at  the  heart  when  it 
leaves  it  and  enters  the  arteries,  no  sooner  has  it 
entered  them  than  it  commences  to  pass  into  the 
veins,  and  from  the  veins  it  goes  immediately  into 
the  heart  again ;  this  course,  this  continual  return 
is  the  circulation. 

Modern  physiology  dates  from  the  discovery  of 
the  circulation  of  the  blood.  This  discovery  marked 
the  entrance  of  the  moderns  into  science.  Un- 
til then  they  had  followed  the  ancients;  they  dared 
now  walk  alone.  Harvey  had  discovered  the  most 
beautiful  phenomenon  of  the  animal  economy;  one 
to  which  all  antiquity  had  never  been  able  to  arrive. 
What  became  then  of  the  authority  of  the  masters  ? 
Authority  was  dethroned;  it  was  no  longer  neces- 

the  circulation  of  the  blood.  I  cause  the  crural  vein  and  ar- 
tery of  ^a  dead  dog  to  be  opened;  a  tube  is  inserted  into  the 
open  end  of  the  artery  and  water  is  injected  by  means  of  a 
syringe;  in  a  few  minutes  the  water  injected  into  the  artery 
runs  out  of  the  vein.  It  is  a  complete  illustration  of  the  cir 
culation. 


HISTORY   OP  THE  DISCOVERT.  3 

sary  to  swear  by  Galen  and  by  Aristotle,  but  by 
Harvey. 

I  will  relate,  farther  on,  the  ridiculous  obstinacy 
•with  which  the  faculty  rejected  the  circulation ;  the 
bad  reasonings  of  Riolan,  the  unhappy  pleasantries 
of  Guy  Patin.  But  this  wrong  belonged  only  to 
the  faculty,  not  to  the  nation.  Moliere  ridiculed 
Guy  Patin,  and  Boileau  ridiculed  the  faculty.1  Be- 
fore Moliere  and  Boileau  the  greatest  of  moderns, 
Descartes,  had  proclaimed  the  circulation:  "But 
if  it  be  demanded  how  the  blood  in  the  veins  is  not 
exhausted  by  this  perpetual  flow  into  the  heart, 
and  how  the  arteries  are  not  filled  to  overflowing, 
since  all  that  goes  into  the  heart  is  poured  into 
them,  I  have  only  to  give  as  an  answer  that  which 
has  been  written  by  a  physician  of  England,  to 
whom  we  must  give  the  honor  of  having  first 
investigated  this  subject,  and  of  being  the  first  to 
teach  that  there  are  at  the  extremities  of  the  arte- 
ries many  little  passages  through  which  the  blood 
received  from  the  heart  passes  into  the  small 
branches  of  the  veins,  and  through  these  vessels 
returns  to  the  heart;  so  that  its  course  is  nothing 
but  a  perpetual  circulation." 2 

After  Descartes  we  must  quote  Dionis. 

While  the  faculty  was  rejecting  the  circulation 

(1)  See  VArret  burlesque. 

(2)  Discours  de  la  methode.    Ed.  of  M.  Cousin,  p.  179. 


44  CIRCULATION   OF  THE  BLOOD. 

Dionis  taught  it  in  the  Jardin  du  Roi.  "I  was 
chosen  to  demonstrate  in  your  royal  garden,"  says 
Dionis  in  his  dedication  to  Louis  XIV.,  "  the  cir- 
culation of  the  blood  and  the  new  discoveries,  and 
I  acquitted  myself  of  this  duty  with  all  the  ardor 
and  the  exactitude  which  the  orders  of  your  Ma- 
jesty deserve."  These  words  honor  the  memory  of 
Louis  XIV. 

Thus  upon  one  side  France  devoted  a  chair  to 
the  teaching  of  the  circulation  of  the  blood,  and 
on  the  other,  as  we  shall  soon  see,  completed  this 
great  work  by  the  discovery  of  the  reservoir 
of  the  chyle  (receptaculum  chili]  by  Jean  Pecquet. 

So  far  I  have  exhibited  what  belongs  to  Harvey 
in  the  discovery  of  the  circulation  of  the  blood,  but 
I  have  only  spoken  of  the  circulation  in  the  adult; 
it  remains  to  be  seen  how  much  he  contributed  to- 
ward the  discovery  of  the  foetal  circulation..  This 
will  be  the  subject  of  the  following  chapter. 


II. 


DUVERNEY   AND   THE   FCETAL    CIRCULATION. 

The  heart  of  the  foetus  is  not  like  that  of  the 
adult.  In  the  adult  the  two  sides  of  the  heart  are 
completely  separated.  An  entire  and  solid  mem- 
brane, like  that  between  the  ventricles,  separates 
the  two  auricles,  and  the  two  large  arteries,  the 
pulmonary  artery  and  the  aorta,  have  no  commu- 
nication with  each  other. 

In  the  foetus  all  this  is  different.  The  septum 
between  the  two  auricles  is  perforated  by  an  open- 
ing called  the  foramen  ovale  and  the  pulmonary 
artery  and  aorta  are  connected  by  a  canal  which 
vre  call  the  ductus  arteriosus. 

What  are  the  objects  of  this  conformation? 

First,  let  us  remark  that  there  are  two  points 
to  examine — structure  and  use.  Galen  was  ac- 
quainted with  the  structure;  Harvey  discovered 
the  use. 

Galen. 

In  the  foetus,  says  Galen,  the  vena  cava  opens 
into  the  venous  (pulmonary)  artery.1  The  arterial 
vein  and  the  grand  artery  (pulmonary  artery  and 

(1)  "In  fcetibus  vena  cava  in  arteriam  venosam  est  per- 
tusa." — (De  usu  partium,  lib.  xv.,  p.  212.) 


46  CIRCULATION   OF  THE  BLOOD. 

aorta)  are  likewise  united  by  a  third  vessel  which 
nature  has  formed  expressly  for  that  purpose.1  And 
as  the  two  first-named  vessels,  the  vena  cava  and 
the  pulmonary  artery,  touch  each  other,  nature  has 
made  an  opening  from  one  to  the  other,  and  has 
applied  a  membrane  to  this  opening,  which  yields 
readily  to  the  blood  as  it  passes  from  the  vena 
cava  to  the  venous  artery,  and  resists  on  the  con- 
trary, the  return  of  the  blood  from  the  venous 
artery  back  into  the  vena  cava.2 

All  this  is  admirable,  adds  Galen ;  but  what  is 
still  more  admirable  is  that  a  few  days  after  birth, 
this  opening  between  the  vena  cava  and  the  venous 
artery  closes;  the  canal  which  unites  the  arterial 
vein  and  the  great  artery  becomes  obliterated; 
and  he  who  would  seek  for  these  early  communica- 
tions some  time  later  will  not  be  able  to  find  them ; 
of  one  of  them,  of  the  opening  between  the  vena 

(1)  "  Verum  cum  hrcc  vasa  inter  se  aliquantum  distarent, 
aliud  tertium  vas  exiguum,  quod  utrumque  conjungeret,  na- 
tura  efficit." — (De  usupartium.) 

(2).  "In  reliquis  vero  duobus,  cum  hcec  mutuo  sese  contin- 
gerent,  velut  foramen  quoddam  utrique  commune  pertudit: 
turn  membranam  quamdam  in  eo,  instar  operculi,  est  maclii- 
nata,  quae  ad  pulmonis  vas  facile  resupinaretur,  quo  sangumi 
a  vena  cavil  cum  impetu  affluent!  cederet  quidem,  prohiberet 
autem  ne  sanguis  rursum  in  venam  cavam  reverteretur." — 
(Ibid.) 


HISTORY   OF  THE  DISCOVERT.  47 

cava   and   the  venous   artery  he  will  not  find  a 
trace.1 

It  must  not  be  supposed,  continues  Galen,  that 
we  are  speaking  of  communications  or  openings 
small,  scarcely  visible,  and  doubtful;  the  openings 
are  large,  evident,  patent,  of  which  there  can  be 
no  question ;  their  existence  has  been  denied  how- 
ever, but  to  those  who  are  unbelieving  I  will  say, 
if  they  have  eyes  I  will  convince  them,  if  they  have 
no  eyes,  if  they  are  blind,  they  at  least  have  hands 
and  I  will  make  them  touch  them.2 

(1)  "Haec  quidem  omnia  naturse  opera  sunt  admiranda: 
Buperat  vero  omnem  admirationem  praedicti  foraminis,  baud 
ita  multo  post,  conglutinatio.    Etenim,  quamprimum  animana 

in  lucem  est  editum,  membranam,  qute  est  ad  foramen, 

coalescentem  reperias,  nondum  tamen  coaluisse;  cum  autem 
animal  perfectum  fuerit,  cctateque  jam  floruerit,  si  locum  hunc 
ad  unguem  densatum  inspexeris,  negabis  fuisse  aliquando 

tempus  in  quo  fuerit  pertusus Pari  modo  id  vas,  quod 

magnam  arteriam  veme  quas  fertur  ad  pulmonem  connectit, 
cum  alia?  omnes  animalis  particular  augeantur,  non  modo  non 
augetur,  verum  etiam  tenuis  semper  effici  conspicitur,  adeo 
ut,  tempore  procedente,  penitus  tabescat,  atque  exsiccetur." — 
(Do  usu  partium.) 

(2)   Et  ego  iis,  qui  nos  ita  insectantnr,  si  modo  ocu- 

los  habent,   ostentam  magnae  arterice  propaginem,  et  venae 

cava)  orificium,   sin  vero  sunt  casci,  vasa  in  manus 

sibi  imposita  contrectare  jubebo;  nam  neque  exiguum  eorum 
utrumque.  neque  vulgare  est,  sed  amplum  admodum,  commem- 
orabilemque  intra  sese  habet  meatum,  quern  non  solum  is  qui 
oculos  habet  non  ignoraverit,  sed  ne  is  quidem  cui  tangendi 
erit  potestas,  si  solum  ad  anatonien  velit  acccdcre." — (Ibid.) 


48  CIRCULATION   OP  THE  BLOOD. 

The  anatomists  of  the  time  of  Galen  strongly 
resembled  the  anatomists  of  all  times,  ever  slow  to 
observe  and  ever  ready  to  accuse  those  who  ob- 
served of  being  deceived.  Galen  compared  them 
to  the  man  who,  in  counting  his  asses,  forgot  the 
one  upon  which  he  was  mounted  and  immediately 
accused  his  neighbors  of  having  stolen  one  !  They 
were  like  this  man  because  in  the  enumeration  of 
errors  they  always  forgot  those  of  which  they  them- 
selves were  guilty. 

The  early  modern  anatomists ;  Vesalius  and  FallopiuB. 

Among  modern  anatomists  Fallopius  was  the 
first  to  see  the  ductus  arteriosus,  and  Vesalius  the 
first  to  observe  the  foramen  ovale.  These  two 
great  men  had  frequent  occasion  to  encounter  each 
other;1  they  created  modern  anatomy;  they  pos- 
sessed the  spirit  of  investigation  in  the  highest 
degree,  and  both  were  men  of  most  superior  mind. 

Fallopius,  commenting  on  Vesalius,  is  astonished 
that  this  portion  of  canal,  or  artery,  which  unites 
the  arterial  vein  with  the  aorta,  could  so  long  have 
escaped  the  attention  of  anatomists — and  conse- 
quently of  Vesalius ;  especially  as  in  the  foetus  the 
canal  is  widely  open,  and  although  obliterated 
afterward,  it  still  remains  as  a  thick,  hard  body; 

(1)  Vesalius  wrote  an  Examination  of  the  Observations  of 
Fallopius,  and  the  Observations  of  Fallopius  are  in  fact  a  con- 
tinual examination  of  the  Anatomy  of  Vesalius. 


HISTORY   OF  THE  DISCOVERT.  49 

and  finally  Galen  has  spoken  of  it,  although  cer- 
tainly in  but  few  words :  verbis  paucissimis  tamen.1 

You  are  astonished,  writes  Vesalius  in  reply, 
that  anatomists  make  no  mention  of  a  canal  which 
unites  the  arterial  vein  and  the  great  artery ;  and, 
upon  this  subject,  you  quote  a  passage  of  Galen, 
taken  from  Book  xv.  of  De  usu  partium.  My  dear 
Fallopius,  this  passage  did  not  escape  me,  and  much 
less  that  of  Book  vi.,  which  I  wonder  extremely 
you  do  not  remember,  in  which  Galen,  as  well  as 
in  the  passage  of  Book  xv.,  speaks  not  only  of 
this  communication,  but  of  another  placed  between 
the  venous  artery  and  the  vena  cava.2 

Vesalius  admits,  in  another  place,  that  not  hav- 
ing paid  sufficient  attention  to  the  great  vessels, 

(1)  "In  arteriarum  historic  illud  in  memoriam  venit,  quod 
non  levem  admirationem  excitat:     l..qua  ratione  factum  sit, 
quod  anatomici  fere  omnes  tarn  negligenter  observarint  par- 
tern  illam  canalis  vel  arteriae,  qua  jungitur  vena  arterialis 
circa  basim  cordis  ipsi  aortas ;  cum  in  foetu  tarn  aperta  pateat, 
tantusque  sit  aditus  ab  aorta  ad  venam  arterialem  See- 
undo  quia  a  Galeno  in  decimo  quinto  De  usu  partium,  cap. 
sexto,  aliquot  (paucissimis  tamen)  verbis  designatur." — (Ga- 
brielis  Faloppii  Observations  anatomicce :  in  the  edition  of  the 
OSuvres  de  Vesale,  already  quoted,  t.  ii.,  p.  730.) 

(2)  "CoDterum   (ut  ad  te  redeam)  miraris  plurimum  ana- 
tomicos  nullam  fecisse  mentionem  unionis  mutuaeque  aper- 
tionis  venae  arterealis  ad  magnam  arteriam,  Galenique  locum 
ex  decimo  quinto  De  usu  partium  adducis.     Mi  Fallopi,  hie 
locus  me  nou  latuit,  ac  multo  minus  is,  cujus  miror  hie  te  non 
meminisse,  et  quo  in  sexto  De  usu  partium,  Galenus,  perinde 


50  CIRCULATION   OF  THE  BLOOD. 

the  ductus  arleriosus  had  escaped  his  observation. 
But,  since,  he  had  turned  to  the  examination  of 
the  heart  of  the  foetus,  and  immediately  the  fora- 
men ovale  presented  itself  to  him.1  He  mentions 
the  oval  form  of  this  opening :  ovatd  proeditum  effi- 
gie.  He  studied  the  duclus  arteriosus;  he  opened 
it ; 2  and  with  his  attention  fixed  upon  the  passage 
of  Galen,3  he  admires  the  clearness  with  which  that 
great  man  had  described  it:  miratusfui  quamobrem 
Gralenus  hie  tarn  dilucide  vasis  privatim  meminit, 
quo  vena  arterialis  in  magnam  arteriam  pertinet. 

Arantius  and  Carcanus. 

Arantius  was  the  pupil  of  Vesalius;  Carcanus 
was  the  student  of  Fallopius.     No  sooner  had  Ve- 

ac  in  decimo  quinto.  non  tantum  hanc  unionem,  verum  et 
illam,  qua;  arterias  venali  cum  cavil  vemi  obtigit,  satis  prolix 
et  (si  quis  animum  sedulo  intendit)  aperte  commemorat." — 
(Andreic  Vasalii  Opera,  t.  ii.,  p.  798.) 

(1)  At  quum  propagines  quasdam,  ut  veluti  vasa  qutcdam 
ex  uno  vase  in  aliud  producta,  extra  magnorum  vasorum  cav- 
itates  parum  recte  pervestigarem,  illam  unionem  non  reperi 

Mox  in  foetu,  ven:e  cavte  caudicem, longa  sec- 

tione   secundum   rectitudinem   aperui.     Hie   sese   turn   nihil 
manifestius  mihi  obtulit  quam  maximum  vence  cavne  in  ve- 
nalem  arteriam  pertinens  foramen." — (t.  ii.,  p.  798.) 

(2)  "Pari  artificio,  venae  arterialis  caudicem  longa 

etiam  sectione  patefeci,  caudicisque  illius  cum  magnii  arteria 
unionem  et  mutuum  foramen  observavi." — (Ibid.) 

(3)  "Sedulo  Galeni  locis  rursus  perlectis." — (Ibid.) 


HISTORY   OP  THE  DISCOVERT.  51 

salius  and  Fallopius  laid  with  so  much  eclat,  the 
foundations  of  the  anatomy  of  the  adult,  than  their 
pupils  began  to  investigate  the  anatomy  of  the 
foetus. 

Arantius,  in  his  work  on  the  human  fcetus,  com- 
mences by  informing  us  that  he  only  proposes  to 
make  more  clear  what  Galen  has  so  well  written 
on  the  vessels  and  heart  of  the  foetus.1  Carcanus 
expresses  himself  in  the  same  manner.2 

Here  then,  it  will  be  said,  was  a  very  remarka- 
ble concord  in  rendering  homage.  Vesalius  and 
Fallopius  disputing  as  to  who  could  proclaim  most 
loudly  the  discovery  of  Galen ;  Arantius  and  Car- 
canus partaking  this  great  admiration  and  continu- 
ing the  praise. 

Assuredly  if  after  this  a  desire  to  name  either  of 
these  things  seized  anatomists,  the  foramen  ovale 
for  instance,  it  would  receive  the  name  of  Galen, 
and  be  called  foramen  G-aleno.  But  not  at  all-^- 
it  is  called  the  foramen  Botallil 

(1)  "Quod  cordis  vasa,  aorta  scilicet  venae  arteriali,  et  vena 
cava  arterite  venali,  conjugantur,  Galenus  optime  declaravit, 

sed  cum  ab  ipso  nou  ita  perspicue  despripta  fuerint, 

ut  facile  a  minus  exercitatis  intelligi  possent,  ad  ejus  senten- 
tise  explicationem  pauca  qutedam  addere  constitui." — (De  hu- 
manofcetu,  edition  of  1595,  p.  37.) 

(2)  De  vasorwn  cordis  infcetu  unions. 

5 


52  CIRCULATION  OF  THE  BLCOD. 

Botal. 

Botal  was  not  strictly  an  anatomist.  He  was 
a  bold  physician,  who  arriving  in  Paris1  at  a  time 
when  the  faculty  abused  purgatives,  could  scarcely 
fail  of  making  an  impression,  for  he  abused  blood- 
letting.2 The  faculty  purged  their  patients  with- 
out mercy,  and  he  bled  his  without  pity.  The 
faculty  became  angry.3  Botal  persevered;  from 
Botal  to  Broussais  those  who  have  held  out  against 
the  faculty  have  soon  become  celebrated. 

Botal,  in  dissecting  a  subject  one  day,  found? 
what  sometimes  happens  in  adult  life,  the  fora- 
men ovale  open;  he  saw  it  and  immediately 
imagined  that  he  had  made  the  greatest  discovery 
which  could  be  made  ! 

Some  time  ago,  says  he,  when  reflecting  upon 
the  discord  between  Galen  and  Columbus  in  regard 
to  the  route  which  the  blood  follows  in  passing 
through  the  heart,  Galen  maintaining  that  it 
passes  by  foraminse  in  the  median  septum,  and 
Columbus  by  the  venous  artery,  I  opened  a  heart 
and  immediately  perceived  a  very  large  conduit, 
leading  directly  from  the  right  auricle  into  the 
left,  which  conduit,  or  vein,  can  by  good  right  be 
named  the  nutritive.vein  of  the  arteries,  for  through 

(1)  Botal  was  from  Asti,  in  Piedmont. 

(2)  See  his  treatise  De  curatione  per  sanguini*  missionem. 

(3)  Much  was  written  upon  blood-letting  on  both  sides,  and 
the  controversy  was  extremely  beneficial. 


HISTORY   OF  THE  DISCONERY.  53 

it  the  arterial  blood  passes  into  the  left  ventricle, 
and  from  there  goes  into  all  the  arteries,  and  it 
does  not  pass  through  the  septum,  or  by  the  venous 
artery,  as  Galen  and  Columbus  have  believed.1 

Botal  was  here  mistaken  on  every  point !  first, 
the  blood  which  passes  through  the  foramen  ovale 
from  the  right  into  the  left  auricle  is  not  arterial 
blood,  but  venous,  the  pretended  vein  could  not 
possibly  then  be  called  the  nutritive  vein  of  the 
arteries :  second,  this  opening  does  not  exist  in  the 
adult,  or  only  exists  as  an  exception,  it  is  a  pecu- 
liarity of  foetal  existence,  and  this,  of  all  who  have 
written  upon  it,  Botal  alone  did  not  comprehend ; 
and  finally,  Botal  tells  us  that  the  opening  or  con- 
duit (vein,  as  he  calls  it,)  had  not  been  observed 

(1)  Diebus  iis  proximo  peractis,  cum  Galenum  atque  Col- 
umbum  dissentire  viderem  de  via,  qua  in  cor  sanguis,  qui 
per  arterias  vagatur,  fertur,  asserente  Galeno  hunc  in  cor 
transfundi  per  parva  foraminula  cordis  septo  insita,  Columbo 
vero  per  alia  (Columbus  did  not  say  per  alia,  but  per  arteriosam 
venam,  and  he  said  rightly.  Botal  did  not  perceive  how 
important  exactitude  was.  See  Chap.  I.)  ad  arteriam  veno. 
sam,  ...cor  dividere  occocpi,  ubi... satis  conspicuum  reperj 
ductum,  juxta  auriculam  dextram,  qui  statim  in  sinistram 
aurem  recto  tramite  fertur;  qui  ductus,  vel  vena,  jure  arteria. 

rum nutrix   dici   potest,    ob   id   quod   per  hanc   feratur 

sanguis  arterialis  in  cordis  sinistrum  ventriculum,  et  conse- 
quenter  in  omncs  arterias,  non  autem  per  septum,  vel  veno. 
sam  arteriam,  ut  Galenus  vel  Columbus  putaverunt.,  (Botalli 
Opera  omnia,  edition  of  Van  Home,  I860,  p  66.) 


54  CIRCULATION   OF  THE  BLOOD. 

by  any  one  previous  to  him ;  a  nullo  anted  notata  :l 
yet  the  foramen  ovale  had  been  seen  and  described, 
and  admirably  described,  by  Galen,  by  Vesalius, 
by  Arantius  and  by  Carcanus  ! 

The  uses  of  the  ductus  arteriosus  and  foramen  ovale. 

Galen  asks  himself  what  can  be  the  use  of  the 
ductus  arteriosus  and  of  the  foramen  ovale,  and 
responds  to  his  own  inquiry. 

But  his  answer  is  wholly  theoretical ;  it  is  ex- 
tremely complicated  and  finely  drawn,  yet  in  every 
point  coherent,  which  is  the  mark  of  a  great  master. 
Galen  can  not  be  explained  in  portions  ;  in  study- 
ing his  theories  the  great  whole  must  be  kept  in 
view  or  nothing  will  be  understood. 

Here,  for  example,  the  idea  he  has  of  the  uses 
of  the  ductus  arteriosus  and  the  foramen  ovale 
agrees  with  those  concerning  the  veins  and  arteries  ; 
his  ideas  of  the  veins  and  arteries  agree  with  those 
in  regard  to  the  two  species  of  blood,  the  spirituous 
blood  and  the  venous  blood ;  and  the  idea  which  he 
had  framed  of  these  two  kinds  of  blood  are  in 
harmony  with  his  conceptions  of  the  nature  of 
organs,  of  which  some  require  more  of  the  spirituous 
blood  than  of  the  venous  and  others  exactly  the 
reverse. 

(1)  "  Vena  arterianum  nutrix,  a  nullo  anted  notata:"  such  is 
the  title  under  which  Botal  published  his  pretended  dis- 
covery. 


HISTORY   OF  THE   DISCOVERY.  55 

The  lungs  require  more  of  the  spirituous  than  of 
the  venous  blood :  all  the  other  organs,  less  delicate 
and  less  light,  require  more  of  the  latter  than  of 
the  former.1  The  spirituous  blood,  more  subtile, 
is  contained  in  the  thick-walled  arteries,  the  venous 
and  denser  blood  runs  in  the  veins,  the  tunics  of 
which  are  thin. 

All  the  organs  -which  require  more  venous  than 
spirituous  blood  (that  is  to  say,  all  the  organs 
except  the  lungs)  receive  the  spirituous  blood 
through  the  arteries,  the  dense  walls  of  which  allow 
only  the  most  subtile  portion,  the  spirit,2  to  escape, 
and  they  receive  the  venous  blood  by  the  veins 
•which  allow  the  liquid  to  escape  through  their  thin 
•walls.3 

(1)  Pulmonis  corpus  leve  est,  ac  rarum,   et  velut  ex 

spuma   quadam   sanguinea  concreta  conflatum,    ob    eamque 
causam  puro  sanguine,   et  vaporoso,  ac   tenui  indiguit,  non 
autem,   quomodo  jecur,  limoso   et   crasso.  (De  usu  partium, 
p.  151.) 

(2)  Nihil  nisi  tenuissimum  sinit  elabi.     (Ibid,  p.  151. 

(3)   Quod  ergo  satius  fuit  in  toto  animalis  corpore  san- 

guinem  quidem  tenui  ac  rara,  spirituin  vero  crassa  ac   densa 
concludi  tunica,  longa  egere  ratione  non  arbitror  :  satis  enim 
puto  esse  substantive  utriusque  rationem  acdifferentiam  obiter 
indicate ;  quod  silicet  sanguis  quidem  crassus  est,  gravis,  agrae- 
que  mobilis,  spiritus  vero  tenuis,  et  levis,  et  citus;  quodque 
periculum   erat  ne  hie  expiraret  repente,  atque,  evolaret  ab 
animali,   nisi   crassis,   et  densis,  atque   undique    ccnstrictis 
asservatus  fuisset  tunicis,  atque   coercitus :    contra  vero  in 
sanguine,  nisi  tenuis   et  rara  fuisset  quern  ipsum  continet 
tunica,  non  facile  circumfusis  partibus  distribueretur.    (Ibid.) 


56  CIRCULATION   OF  THE  BLOOD. 

On  the  contrary,  the  lungs,  which  need  much 
more  of  the  spirituous  blood  than  of  the  venous, 
receive  this  kind  of  blood  by  a  vein,  (or,  to  speak 
like  Galen,  by  an  artery  which  has  the  coats  of 
a  vein ;  the  venous  artery,)  and  the  venous  blood 
by  an  artery  (or,  again  to  follow  Galen,  by  a  vein 
which  has  the  coats  of  an  artery,  the  arterial 
vein.) 

This  has  reference  to  the  adult ;  let  us  pass  to 
the  foetus. 

It  is  the  spirituous  blood  which  gives  to  the 
lungs  of  the  adult  that  fine,  delicate  and  reticula- 
ted structure,  which  may  be  said  to  be  formed  of 
the  foam  of  the  blood:  velut  ex  quddam  sanguined 
concretd  spumd  conflatum. 

But  the  lungs  have  no  need  of  this  peculiar1 
tissue  until  after  birth.  After  birth  they  move — 
before  birth  they  are  motionless.  They  then  need 
only  the  same  structure  and  the  same  blood  as  the 
other  organs ;  then  like  the  other  organs  they  are 
thick,  gross  and  red,  and  then  by  a  singular 
arrangement  they  receive  like  them,  more  venous 
than  spirituous  blood.2  How  can  such  a  change 
take  place  ?  It  is  made  by  means  of  these  two 

(1)  Constructionem  ipsius  fecerit  eximiam  praoter  reli- 

quas  omnes  animalis  partes.     ( De  usu  partium,  p.  151.) 

(2)  At  cur   pulmo   in  iis,  qui  adhuc  utero   geruntur,   est 
ruber,  non  autem,  ut  in  perfectis  animalibis,  subalbus  ?  quia 
tune  uutritur    (quemadmodum    reliqua    viscera)   per    vasa 


HISTORY   OF  THE  DISCOVERY.  57 

communications — two  openings  in  the  heart  of 
the  foetus  which  do  not  exist  in  the  heart  of  the 
adult — the  ductua  arteriosus  and  the  foramen 
ovale. 

These  two  openings  change  everything,  as  far  as 
the  lungs  are  concerned,  in  the  course  of  the  blood 
in  the  foetus.  In  the  adult  the  venous  artery 
carries  to  the  lungs  the  spirituous  blood  which  it 
has  received  from  the  left  ventricle  (the  ventricle 
in  which  the  spirits  are  formed)  in  the  foetus  the 
venous  artery  carries  to  the  lungs  the  venous  blood 
which  it  receives  directly  from  the  vena  cava,  by 
the  foramen  ovale.1  In  the  adult  the  arterial 
vein  carries  to  the  lung  the  venous  blood  which  it 
has  received  from  the  vena  cava,  in  the  foetus  the 
arterial  vein  carries  to  the  lungs  the  spirituous 
blood  which  it  has  received  from  the  aorta  by  the 
ductus  arteriosus. 

unicam  tunicam,  et  earn  tenucm  habentia ;  ad  ea  nam  ex  vena 
cavil  sanguis  pervenit,  quo  tempore  foetus  utero  gestatur:  in 

natis    vero  occsecatur   quidem  vasorum   perforatio, quin 

ctiam  pulmo  tune  motu  perpetuo  agitatur,...  cequum  est  igitur 
hie  quoque  naturam  admirari,  qua)  cum  viscus  augeri  dun- 
taxat  oporteret,  sanguinem  purum  ei  suppeditabat ;  cum  vero 

ad   motum   fuit   translatum,    camera   levem fecit ob 

earn  igitur  causam  in  fcetibus  vena  cava  in  arteriam  venosam 
est  pertusa.  (De  usupartium,  p.  156.) 

(1)  Probavimus in   foctibus  necessarium   esse,    cum 

arteria  venosa  sanguinem  a  venii  cava  occipiat,  trahi  ex  ed 
non  minimum.  (Ibid,  p.  156.) 


00  CIRCULATION  OF  THE   BLOOD. 

Between  the  foetus  and  the  adult  there  is  then 
the  widest  difference. 

In  the  adult  the  lung  receives  much  spirituous 
blood  and  little  venous,  in  the  foetus  much  venous 
and  little  spirituous ;  in  the  adult  the  spirituous 
blood  reaches  the  lungs  through  the  venous  artery, 
in  the  foetus  by  the  arterial  vein ;  in  the  adult  the 
venous  blood  arrives  by  the  arterial  vein,  in  the 
foetus  by  the  venous  artery  ;  thus  the  effect  of  the 
ductus  arteriosus  and  foramen  ovale  is  to  invert 
the  course  of  the  blood  and  directly  changes  the 
functions  of  the  two  vessels,  giving  to  the  venous 
artery  the  functions  of  the  arterial  vein  and  vice 
versa. 

Harvey. 

Galen  supposed  that  the  blood  passed  through 
the  foramen  ovale,  its  course  being  from  the  right 
auricle  to  the  left  and  from  the  left  auricle 
through  the  pulmonary  vein  into  the  lungs. 
But  this  is  not  the  case ;  the  blood  flows  through 
the  foramen  ovale  in  order  to  pass  from  the  right 
auricle  into  the  left,  and  from  the  left  auricle  into 
the  left  ventricle,  from  thence  into  the  aorta,  and 
so  on  to  all  parts  of  the  body,  escaping  the 
passage  through  the  lungs.  He  also  supposed 
that  the  blood  passed  through  the  ductus  arteriosus 
from  the  aorta  into  the  pulmonary  artery  and 
thence  into  the  lungs.  Neither  is  this  the  truth. 


HISTORY   OF   THE   DISCOVERY.  59 

It  goes  from  the  pulmonary  artery  by  the  ductus 
arteriosus  into  the  aorta,  and  from  thence  to  all 
parts  of  the  body,  again  escaping  a  passage 
through  the  lungs.  In  a  word,  the  foramen  ovale 
and  the  ductus  arteriosus  are  not  designed  to  afford 
a  different  route  by  which  the  blood  may  reach 
the  lungs  in  the  foetus  from  the  adult  as  Galen 
believed,  but  their  object  is  to  prevent  it  going  to 
the  lungs  at  all.1 

In  the  adult  there  are  two  circulations  the  pul- 
monary and  the  general :  in  the  foetus  there  is  but 
one,  the  general.  Everything  .in  the  adult  is 
arranged  in  harmony  with  the  existence  of  two 

o  •/ 

circulations,  for  neither  the  two  sides,  of  the  heart, 
nor  the  two  great  arteries  communicate  with  each 
other ;  in  the  foetus  all  is  disposed  so  that  there 
may  be  but  one  circulation,  for  the  two  sides  of 
the  heart,  (i.  e.,  the  two  auricles)  open  into  each 
other  by  the  foramen  ovale,  and  the  two  great 
arteries  are  connected  by  the  ductus  arteriosus. 

In  the  adult,  the  two  sides  of  the  heart  being 
completely  separated,  the  blood  can  not  pass  from 
one  to  the  other  without  making  the  circuit  through 
the  lungs ;  there  is,  therefore,  in  the  adult  a  pul- 
monary circulation ;  in  the  foetus,  where  the  two 
sides  of  the  heart  communicate,  the  blood  passes 

(1)  Or,  at  least,  that  only  the  least  possible  quantity  may 
reach  them  ;  in  truth  only  that  can  go  there  which  escapes 
the  foramen  ovale  and  the  duclus  arteriosus. 

6 


60  CIRCULATION  OF  THE  BLOOD. 

directly  from  one  side  to  the  other  through  the 
foramen  ovale,1  and  there  is,  therefore,  no  pulmon- 
ary circulation. 

The  great  point  in  the  adult  is,  that  the  blood 
goes  to  the  lungs  because  it  is  by  the  lungs  that 
the  adult  respires ;  the  great  point  in  the  foetus  is 
that  respiration  is  not  performed  by  the  lungs  and, 
therefore,  the  blood  does  not  go  to  them.  The 
foetus  respires  by  means  of  another  organ.2 

The  lungs  of  the  foetus  do  not  respire — they  do 
not  dilate.  They  can  not  then  receive  the  blood 
of  the  general  circulation ;  and  they  do  not 
receive  it,  through  the  agency  of  the  foramen 
ovale  and  ductus  arteriosus,  as  was  so  well  seen 
by  Harvey,  the  most  ingenious  man  of  the  whole 
world  in  drawing  from  the  structure  of  parts  infer- 
ences as  to  their  uses.3 

(1)  And  also  directly  from  the  pulmonary  artery  to  the  aorta 
by  the  ductus  arteriosus. 

(2)  By  the  placenta  in  viviparous  animals;  by  the  vessels 
of  the  allantois  in  oviparous. 

(3)  Ex  quibus  intelligitur  in   embryone   humano, id 

ipsum   accidere,   ut   cor   suo   motu,   per    patentissimas    vias 
sanguinem  de  vena  cava  in   arteriam  magnam   apertissime 
traducat,  per  utriusque  ventriculi  ductum.     Dexter  si  quidem 
sanguinem  ab  auricula  recipiens,  inde  per  venam  arteriosam, 
et  propaginem  suam  (canalem  arteriosum  dictam)  in  magnam 
arteriam  propellit.     Sinister  similiter  eodem  tempore,  medi- 
ante  auriculae  motu,  recipit  sanguinem   (in  illam  sinistram 
auriculam  deductum  scilicet  per  foramen  ovale  e  vena  cava), 


HISTORY    OF   THE    DISCOVERY.  61 

Duverney  and  Mery. 

Harvey's  work  appeared  in  1G28.  In  1699, 
more  than  half  a  century  later,  and  when  all  the 
teachings  of  that  great  man,  as  well  upon  the 
foetal  as  upon  the  adult  circulation,  had  been 
adopted,  and  for  some  time  adopted,  there  arose 
all  at  once  a  very  lively  discussion  in.  our  Academy 
touching  the  route  which  the  blood  follows  in  the 
heart  of  the  foetus. 

In  this  celebrated  discussion  between  two  anato- 
mists of  profound  ability,  Mery  and  Duverney, 
Mery  was  constantly  wrong  and  Duverney  as 
constantly  right.  Mery  was  a  man  of  great  talent 
but  not  of  as  good  judgment  as  Duverney.  The 
saying  of  Mery  has  been,  preserved  for  us  by 
Fontenelle :  "  We  anatomists  are  like  the  coachmen 
of  Paris  who  know  all  the  streets,  even  the  smallest 
and  least  frequented,  but  who  know  nothing  of 
what  is  taking  place  in  the  houses." 

Mery  admitted  that  the  blood  which  passes 
through  the  ductus  arteriosus  goes  from  the  pul- 
monary artery  to  the  aorta,  and  consequently 
escapes  the  lungs,  as  Harvey  taught.  The  difficul- 

et  tensione  suit,  et  constrictione  per  radicem  aortae  in  magnam 
itidem  arteriam  simul  impellit....Ita  in  embryonibus,  dum 
pulmones  otiantur,  et  nullarn  actionem  aut  motum  habent, 
quasi  nulli  forent,  natura  duobus  ventriculis  cordis  quasi 

uno   utitur,  ad  sanguinem  transmittendum (Gul.  Harvei 

Exercit.  anat.  de  motu  cordis,  etc.,  cap.  vi.) 


62  CIRCULATION   OF    THE   BLOOD. 

ty  was  only  in  regard  to  the  foramen  ovale.  Ac- 
cording to  Harvey  the  blood  which  passes  through 
this  opening,  flows  from  the  right  auricle  to  the  left. 
Mery  held  to  the  contrary,  that  it  passed  from  the 
left  auricle  into  the  rioht. 

o 

Duverney  sustained  the  opinion  of  Harvey. 

The  foramen  ovale  is  at  first  completely  open. 
Soon  a  delicate  membrane  commences  to  form  at 
its  edges,  which  increases  and  extends  itself  by 
degrees,  until  finally  it  closes  the  opening  entirely. 
Now  this  membrane  is  disposed  in  such  a  manner 
as  to  allow  the  blood  to  pass  from  the  right  into 
the  left  auricle,  and  to  resist  on  the  contrary,  its 
motion  in  the  opposite  direction. 

This  Harvey  had  already  observed  before  Du- 
verney,1 and  Galen  before  Harvey.2 

"The   mechanism  of  the  valve  of  the  foramen 

(1)  Insuper  in  illo  foramine  ovali  e  regione,  qufe  arteriam 
venosa\n  respicit,  operculi  instar  membrana  tenuis  et  dura 
ejBt,  foramine  .major,  quoe  postea  in  adultis,  operiens  hoc 
foramen,  et  coalescens  undique,  istud  omnino  obstruit,  et 
prope  obliterat.  Hsec,  inq'uam,  membrana  sic  constituta  est 

ut,  dum  laxe  in   se   concidit, sanguini  a  cava  affluent! 

cedat  qu'idem,  at  ne  rursus  in  cavam  refluat,  impediat:  ut 
liceat  existintare  in  embryone  sanguinem  continue*  debere 
per  hoc  foramen  transire  d6  vend  cava  in  arteriam  venosam, 
inde  in  auriculum  sinistram  cordis,  et  postquam  ingressum 
fuerit,  remeare  nunquam  posse.  (Gul.  Harvei  JEzercit,  atiat.  de 
molu  cordis,  etc.,  p.  44.) 

.    (2)  See  note  2  page  46. 


HISTORY   OF  THE  DISCOVERY.  63 

ovale  in  the  foetus,"  says  Duverney,  "  is  always 
such  as  to  allow  a  free  passage  of  the  blood  from 
the  vena  cava  into  the  left  auricle  of  the  heart, 
and  to  prevent  its  return." 

He  says  in  another  place,  "  the  valve  of  the 
foramen  ovale  of  the  foetus,  allows  the  blood  to 
pass  easily  from  the  vena  cava  on  into  the  vein  of 
the  lungs,  but  it  entirely  prevents  its  return." 

Farther,  "the  ductus  arteriosus  of  the  foetus 
serves  to  relieve  the  lungs  by  conducting  the 
greater  part  of  the  blood  of  the  pulmonary  artery 
into  the  aorta." 

Finally,  he  says,  "  in  regard  to  the  human 
foetus,  which  does  not  respire  so  long  as  it  is  in 
the  body  of  the  mother,  if  the  blood  furnished  by 
the  two  venae  cavae  circulated  through  the  lungs, 
it  would  be  exposed  to  fatal  accidents ;  it  was 
necessary  thenfor  nature  to  provide  special  routes 
for  the  relief  of  the  lungs,  and  she  has  made 
these  by  means  of  the  foramen  ovale  and  the 
ductus  arteriosus."1 

All  these  ideas  are  clear  land  correct ;  but  Du- 
verney did  not  stop  here.  •  From  this  study  so  well 
pursued,  from  this  clear  conception  of  the  circula- 
tion of  the  blood  in  the  foetus,  he  extended  his 
investigations  to  subjects  the  most  important  and 
the  most  novel — the  action  of  the  air  in  respira- 

(1)  Mem.  de  1'Acad.  des  Sciences,  1699. 


64  CIRCULATION  OF   THE   BLOOD. 

tion,  and  the  part  which  respiration  plays  in  the 
different  classes  of  animals. 

Harvey  had  already  felt  the  intimate  connection 
between  the  circulation  and  the  respiration.  The 
question  should  now  be,  he  says,  to  know  why  the 
blood  passes  through  the  lungs  in  the  adult,  and 
why  it  does  not  pass  through  them  in  the  foetus;  why 
this  is  necessary  in  man  and  in  animals  which  like 
him  are  warm-blooded,  and  why  it  is  not  necessary, 
(or  at  least  not  so  completely)  in  those  that  are 
cold-blooded,  such  as  the  turtle  and  the  frog. 
May  it  be  that  in  man  and  other  warm-blooded 
animals  the  blood  is  so  hot  that  it  would  ignite, 
inflame,  perhaps,  if  it  did  not  go  to  the  lungs  to  mix 
with  air  and  be  cooled  ?  * 

We  see  then  that  Harvey  did  not  yet  suspect 
any  other  use  for  respiration  than  that  of  cooling 
the  blood;  and  undoubtedly  the'  discoveries  of 
modern  chemistry  were  necessary  in  order  to 

(1)  Restat  ut  illud  perquiramus Aut  cur  melius  sit  in 

adolescentibus,  sanguinis  transitu  naturam  omnino  occlusisse 
vias  patentes  illas,  quibus  ante  in  embryone  et  foetu  usa 

fuerat Cur  in   majoribus    et  perfectioribus   animalibus, 

iisque  adultis,  natura  sanguinem  transcolari  per  pulmonum 
parenchyma  potius  velit  quam  ut  in  cteteris  animalibus... 
Sive  hoc  sit  quod  majora  et  perfectiora  animalia  sint  calidiora, 
et  cum  sint  adulta,  eorum  calor  magis  (ut  ila  dicam)  igniatur 
et  ut  suffocetur  sit  proclivis,  et  ideo  tranare  et  trajici  per 
pulmones,  ut  inspirato  acre  contemperetur,  et  ab  ebullitione 
et  suffocatione  vindicetur (G.  Harvey  Opera,  p.  47.) 


HISTORY   OF  THE   DISCOVERY.  65 

pass  with  certainty  from  this  idea  to  the  opposite 
one  of  respiration  being  the  source  of  the  heat  of 
the  blood.  Meanwhile  a  close  and  attentive  obser- 
vation of  the  facts  of  comparative  anatomy  would 
also  conduct  to  this  opposite  and  novel  view ;  by 
this  means  Duverney  arrived  at  it. 

"When  we  consider,"  says  Duverney,  "that 
the  blood  of  the  pulmonary  vein  is  of  a  brighter 
tint  than  that  of  the  pulmonary  artery,  we  .  easily 
conclude  that  it  is  charged  with  some  particles 
of  air."1 

"It  is  in  the  lungs,"  he  adds,  "that  the  air 
communicates  to  the  blood  those  particles  so  active 
and  penetrating,  upon  which  its  heat  depends ;  it 
is  by  this  mixture  that  it  is  rendered  fit  for 
nourishment.  We  need  not  be  astonished  that  it 
is  necessary  for  man,  a  being  of  so  many  different, 
violent  and  long  continued  sensations  and  move- 
ments, for  all  the  blood  to  circulate  through  the 
lungs,  but  it  is  sufficient  for  the  turtle  and  other 
similar  animals,  such  as  the  frog  and  the  sala- 
mander, which  pass  all  the  winter  in  a  state  of 
repose,  and  Avhich  have  only  sluggish  movements, 
for  a  third  part  of  the  blood  to  pass  through  the 
lungs."2 

Finally,  he  wrote  this  sentence  :  "  The  princi- 
pal function  of  the  lungs  is  to  impregnate  the  blood 

(1)  Mem.  de  I'Acad.  des  sc.,  1701,  p.  238. 

(2)  Ibid,  1699,  p.  248. 


66  CIRCULATION   OF  THE  BLOOD. 

•with  air,  and  thus  to  render  it  capable  of  carrying 
everywhere  nutriment,  life  and  heat."1 

It  was  not  possible  to  approach  nearer  to  the 
truth. 

In  these  two  chapters,  I  have  studied  the  dis- 
covery of  the  circulation  of  the  blood  properly 
speaking ;  it  remains  for  me  to  consider  the  dis- 
covery of  the  lacteah  and  of  the  reservoir  of  the 
chyle,  receptaculum  cJiyli;  this  will  occupy  the 
following  chapter. 

(1)  Mem.  de  FAcad.  des.  sc.,  1701,  p.  240. 


III. 

ASELLI, PECQCET, RUDBECK, BARTHOLIN. 

The  lactealg,  the  receptaculum  chyli,  and  the  lymphatics. 

I  HAVE  already  said  that  modern  physiology 
dates  from  the  discovery  of  the  circulation  of  the 
blood. 

This  discovery  Harvey  made  in  1619  and  taught 
it  publicly  until  1628  when  he  published  it  in  his 
book;1  and  about  this  time  a  new  influence,  the 
divine  breath  of  discovery,  animated  all  minds; 
Aselli  discovered  the  lacteals  in  1622 ;  Pecquet  the 
receptacle  of  the  chyle  in  1648;  Rudbeck  and 
Thomas  Bartholin  the  lymphatics  between  1650 
and  1652.  Nothing  can  be  more  astonishing  than 
this  first  outburst  of  modern  genius. 

The  ancients  knew  nothing  of  the  lacteals,  the 
lymphatic  vessels  or  the  reservoir  of  the  chyle. 

Galen  believed  that  the  chyle  was  taken  up  by 
the  veins  of  the  intestines,  and  carried  by  these 
veins  to  the  liver,  and  that  in  the  liver  it  was 
changed  into  blood.  He  believed  also  that  it  was 

(1)  "Per  novem  et  amplius  annos  multis  ocularibus  de- 
monstrationibus  in  conspectu  vestro  confirmatum." — (See  hia 
Dedication,  p.  l.j 


68  CIRCULATION   OF  THE  BLOOD. 

in  the  liver  that  the  change  of  blood  from  black  to 
red  took  place. 

The  liver  was  then  at  once  the  organ  for  con- 
verting the  chyle  into  blood  and  changing  black 
blood  into  red;  the  liver  was  the  organ  of  san- 
guification. 

The  theory  of  sanguification,  of  the  formation 
of  blood  by  the  liver,  was  Galen's  great  theory  and 
great  error.  It  was  a  learned  error,  (and  such  are 
the  most  tenacious),  which  commenced  with  Galen, 
was  victorious  over  Harvey,  and  did  not  submit 
until  attacked  by  Pecquet.  It  was  an  error  for 
whose  dissipation  all  the  discoveries  I  have  just 
mentioned  were  necessary,  that  of  the  lacteals,  that 
of  the  lymphatics,  and  that  of  the  receptaculum 
chyli ;  and  not  only  these  but  others,  such  as  the 
true  uses  of  respiration,  the  real  action  of  the  air 
upon  the  blood,  and  the  true  use  of  the  heart. 

This  singular  succession  of  discoveries  remains 
for  us  to  consider. 

Galen  and  the  theory  of  sanguification. 

The  theory  of  sanguification  was  made  up  of  four 
points,  as  I  have  just  said:  the  first,  that  the  chyle 
was  taken  up  by  the  veins  of  the  intestines ;  the  sec- 
ond, that  these  veins  carried  it  to  the  liver ;  the 
third,  that  in  the  liver  it  was  changed  into  blood; 
and  the  fourth,  that  by  the  same  organ  black  blood 
was  changed  into  red. 


HISTORY   OF  THE   DISCOVERY.  69 

But  to  these  four  points  two  others  were  joined ; 
the  formation  of  spirits,  and  the  maintenance  of 
animal  heat. 

1  and  2.  As  fast  as  the  chyle  is  formed  in  the 
stomach  and  intestines,  says  Galen,  the  veins  take 
it  up  and  carry  it  to  a  central  and  common  place, 
which  is  the  liver.1 

Galen  very  ingeniously  compared  the  veins  of  tho 
intestines  to  the  roots  of  a  tree ;  the  smaller  unit- 
ing to  larger  ones,  these  to  larger  still,  and  so  on 
to  the  liver  where  all  were  united  into  one  called 
the  vena  porta,2  because  it  is  the  gate  of  the  liver, 
the  gate  through  which  everything  passes  that 
arrives  at  the  liver.3 

(1)  "Prius  elaboratum  in  ventriculo  alimentum  vence  ipsse  de- 
ferunt  ad  aliquem  concoctionis  locum  communem  totius  anima- 
lis,  quern  hepar  nominamus." — (De  usupartium,  lib.  iv.,  p.  135.) 

(2)  "^Colligens  vero  Datura,  ut  in  arboribus,  exiguas  illas 
radices  in  crassiores,  ita  in  animalibus  vasa  minora  in  ma- 
jora,  et  ea  rursus  in  alia  majora,  idque  semper  agens  usque 
ad  hepar,  in  unam  omnia  venam  coegit,  quos  ad  portas  sita 
est." — (Ibid.,  p.  141.)     QUCB  ad  porta  sita  est;  literally,  which 
is   situated  at    the    gate    of    the    liver.     But  this    place  is  the 
gate   of    the  liver  only   because  it   receives  the  vena  porta, 
and  all  which   it  conveys  or  brings.     "The  vena  porta,  thus 
named  by  the  ancients,  because  they  believed  that  it  carried 
the  chyle  to  the  liver  to  be  converted  into  blood." — (Dionis : 
Anatomie  de  I'homme  suivant  la  circulation,  etc.,  5th  ed.,  p.  205.) 

(3)  "Quemadmodum  in  urbes  nihil  nisi  per  portas  invehi 
potest:  ita  nihil  potest  in  jecur  deferri,  nisi  prius  in  hunc 
feratur  locum. — (De  constitut.  art.  mod.,  p.  41.) 


70  CIRCULATION   OF   THE  BLOOD. 

3.  Having  reached  the  liver  the  chyle  ferments 
there,  is  concocted,  divests  itself  of  its  impurities 
and  changes  into  blood,  in  the  same  manner  as  the 
must  in  the  vats  ferments,  clears  itself  of  foul  mat- 
ters and  changes  into   wine : *  "  and  in  the  same 
way,"  says  Descartes,  "that  the  juice  of  the  black 
grape,  which  is  white,  turns  into  claret  wine  when 
the  husks  remain  in  the  vats  with  it." 

And  remark,  that  the  liver  has  everything  neces- 
sary for  purification,  for  it  has  the  gall-bladder, 
the  spleen  and  the  kidneys ; 2  the  gall-bladder  which 
attracts  and  receives  the  lightest  of  the  impurities, 
the  spleen  which  removes  the  thickest,  and  the 
kidneys  the  more  aqueous  parts.3 

4.  The  chyle  which  the  liver  receives  is  not  yet 
blood,  but  only  an  obscure  form  of  blood ; 4  in  the 

(1)  "Porro,  juxta  exempli  similitudinem,  intellige  mihi  dis- 
tributum  a  ventriculo  ad  hepar  chylum,  a  visceris  caliditate, 
•velut  vinum  ipsum  in  dolio  musteum,  fervere,  concoqui,  et 
alterari  in  sanguinis  boni  generationem.': — (De  usu  partium, 
lib.  iv.,  p.  136. 

(2)  " Excrementorum    expurgatoria    instrumental 

renes,  lienem,  bilisque  receptricem.  vesicain." — (De  Hipp,  et 
Plat,  decret.,  lib.  vi.) 

(3)  "Vesicam,  quae  leve  et   flavum   superfluum  receptura 
erat,  natura  imposuit  liepati;  splenem  \ero   qui   crassum  et 

limosum  ...,  renes  tenue  hoc  et  acquosum  excrementum." 

— (De  usu  partium,  lib.  iii.,  p.  136. 

(4)  "Ipsum  autem  hepar,  postquam  id  nutrimentum  accep- 
erit,  obscuramque  speciem  sanguinis  referens,  inducit 


HISTORY   OF   THE   DISCOVERT.  71 

liver  the  chyle  undergoes  its  last  change  and  puri- 
fication, and  becomes  perfect  blood,  taking  on  the 
red  color.1 

The  constant  merit  of  Galen  was  to  have  co- 
herent and  consistent  ideas;  his  constant  fault  was 
that  he  did  not  verify  his  ideas  by  observation. 
Here,  for  example,  the  most  simple  experiment 
would  have  shown  him  how  greatly  he  was  de- 
ceived. He  had  only  to  expose  the  liver  in  a  liv- 
ing animal  and  he  would  have  seen  the  blood  enter 
it  black  and  leave  it  of  the  same  color.  This  single 
experiment  would  have  led  him  to  suspect  his  whole 
theory. 

5.  The  formation  of  spirits.  Galen  enumerated 
three  kinds  of  spirits — the  natural,  the  vital, 
and  the  animal. 

He  Avas  not  as  positive  of  the  existence  of  the 
natural  as  of  the  other  two ;  but  in  case  they  did 
exist  he  located  them  in  the  liver;2  the  vital  he 

ei  postremum  ornamentum  ad  sanguinis  exact!  generationem." 
— (De  u.iu  parlium,  p.  135.) 

(1)  Et  ab  innatii  caliditate  concretionem  exactam  est  adep- 
tus,  ruber  jam  et  purus  sursum  ad  gibbas  partes  hepatis  as- 
cendit." — (Ibid.,  p.  136.)     "Sanguinis  rubri  prima  in  jecore 
generatio  est." — (De  Hipp,  et  Plat,  decret.,  lib.  vi.,  p.  266.) 

(2)  "Quod  si  naturalis  quoque  aliquis  spiritus  est,  utique 
is   quoque    in  jecore   et   venis   continebitur." — (De   methodo 
medcndi,  lib.  xii.,  p.  77. 


72  CIRCULATION   OF  THE   BLOOD. 

placed  in  the  heart;1  the  animal  in  the  brain;2  and 
he  accounted  for  the  origin  of  the  two  kinds 
of  whose  existence  he  was  sure,  in  the  fol- 
lowing manner,  both  being  formed  from  the 
blood.3 

The  vilal  spirits  are  the  exhalation  of  the  blood.* 
They  are  formed  in  the  heart,  of  the  vapor  of  the 
blood,  particularly  in  the  left  ventricle,5  and  from 
these  vital  spirits,  carried  in  the  arteries0  to  the 
brain7  and  there  more  completely  elaborated,  ri- 
pened, and  perfected,  are  formed  the  animal  spirits. 

(1)  "Vitalis  spiritus  et  in  arteriis  et  in  corde  gignitur." — 
(De  Hipp,  et  Plat,  decret.,  lib.  vii.,  p.  269.) 

(2)  "Animalis  spiritus  cerebrum,  veluti  fontem  esse 

demonstravimus." — (De  methodo  jnedendi,  lib.  xii.,  p.  77.) 

(3)  "Sicut  autem  vitalis  spiritus  secundum  arterias  et  cor 

generatur,  ita  animalis   ex  vitali   amplius  elaborate 

habet  generationem." — (De  virtut.  corp.  disp.,  p.  61.) 

(4)  "Spiritus  exhalatio  qutedam  sanguinia  benigni." — (De 
usuparlium  lib.  vi.,  p.  155.) 

(5)  "Copiosior,  in  sinistro,   spiritus    substantial — (Ibid., 
lib.  vi-,  p.  154.) 

(6)  "Ab  arteriis  quibus  in  ipsum  cerebrum  acclivis  est  po- 
sitio,  effluit  semper  spiritus,  belle  in  retiformi  plexu  confectus, 

proinde  in  his  moratus  diutissime,  conficitur;  confec- 

tus  autem  statim  cerebri  ventriculis  incidit." — (Ibid.,  lib.  ix., 
p.  172.) 

(7)  "Consentaneum  igitur  rationi  est  spiritum  hunc  in  cer- 
ebri ventriculis  oriri." — (De  Hip.  et  Plat,  decret.,  lib.  vii., 
p.  269.) 


HISTORY   OF  THE   DISCOVERY.  73 

"Similarly,"  says  Jean  Canappe  in  his  quaint 
language,  "hath  nature,  making  from  the  vital 
spirits  the  animal,  fashioned  and  fabricated  close 
to  the  brain  the  rete  mirabile,  like  unto  a  labyrinth 
in  which  they  are  elaborated.  And  afterward  they 
are  sent  and  transmitted  to  the  anterior  ventricles 
where  they  are  still  better  prepared  and  rectified: 
and  thence  they  pass  by  the  common  conduit  to 
the  posterior  ventricle  where  they  receive  perfect 
elaboration." l 

The  animal  or  cerebral  spirit,  the  spirit  born  of 
the  brain,  is  the  most  noble  and  most  perfect  part 
of  man;  it  is  the  substance  of  the  soul  itself,  or  at 
least  its  immediate  instrument:2  reason,  which  is 
the  distinguishing  mark  of  man  is  seated  in  the 
brain, 3  and  hence,  says  Galen,  originated  the  in- 
genious fable  of  the  birth  of  Minerva  from  the 
brain  of  Jupiter,  which  implies  that  the  brain  is 
the  source  of  all  the  productions  of  human  genius, 
of  all  our  arts  and  all  our  sciences.4 

(1)  L1  anatomic  du  corps  humain,  etc.,  p.  83. 

(2)  "Oportet hunc  ipsum  spiritum,  aut  ipsam  animss 

substantiam  esse,  aut  primum   ipsius   instrumentum." — (De 
utilitate  respirationis,  p.  225.) 

(3)  "At  ratio,   quse   revera  homo  est,    sedem  in  cerebro 
habens  "  (De  usu  partii>m,  lib.  iv.,  p.  139.) 

(4)  "Fabula  quoc  ex  Jovis  capite  Minervam,  hoc  est  pru- 

dentiam,  natam  esse  ait "  (De  Hipp,  et  Plat,  decret.,  lib. 

iii.,  p.  247.) 


74  CIRCULATION    OF   THE  BLOOD. 

6.  Animal  heat.  According  to  Galen,  animal 
heat  is  a  primitive  force,  natural  and  innate.1  The 
heart  is  the  source  of  this  heat.2  From  the  heart 
arises  the  heat  of  the  blood,  and  from  the  blood 
that  of  the  body.3  Of  all  parts  of  the  body  the 
heart  is  the  warmest;4  and  of  the  heart  itself  the 
warmest  part  is  the  left  ventricle;5  and  therefore 
this  ventricle  is  the  place  in  which  the  spirits 
are  formed,  the  place  where  the  venous  blood  is 
changed  into  spirituous. 

But  for  this  heat,  natural  and  innate,  to  be  dura- 
ble an  aliment  was  necessary,  and  in  order  that  it 
should  not  become  excessive,  a  moderator.  The 
aliment  is  the  blood;6  the  blood,  sa^s  Galen,  is  the 

(1)  "Calorem  autem  non  acquisition verum  ipsum 

primum,  primogenitum  et  insitum." — (De  trem.,  palp.,  convuls , 
etc.,  p.  54.) 

(2)  "Cor  caloris  nativi,  quo  animal  regitur,  quasi  fons  qui- 
dem,  ac  focus  est." — (De  usu  partium,  lib.  vi.,  p.  150.) 

(3)  "Sanguis  vero  ipse  a  corde  suum  accipit  calorem." — (De 
temperamentis,  lib.  i.,  p.  15.)     "Et  ita  calor  continue  effluit  a 
corde  ad  arterias,  et  per  arterias  ad  totum  corpus." — (De  utilit. 
respirat.,  p.  69,  t.  vii.) 

(4)  "Id  viscus  (cor)  turn  omnium  animalis  partium  maximd 
sanguineum,  turn  vero  calidissimum  est." — (De  temperamentis, 
p.  15.) 

(5)  "Hunc  maxime  sinum  ad  summum  pervenire  caloris 
"  (De  incequali  intemperie,  p.  44.) 

(6)  "  Non  solum  nutrimentum  animantis  partibus  ex  san- 
guine est,  sed  calor  quoque  naturalis  perseverantiam  ex  san- 
guine obtinet." — (De  curandi  ratione  per  sang,  mission.,  p.  16.) 


HISTORY   OF  THE   DISCOVERY.  75 

wood  of  the  fire  which  burns  in  the  heart;1  and  the 
lungs2  act  as  moderator  and  draw  unceasingly 
by  respiration  new  air  into  the  body  and  with  this 
air  cool  and  temper  the  heart  continually.3 

The  theory  of  sanguification  is  now  before  us. 

Nothing  could  be  more  complete,  for  it  com- 
menced Avith  the  formation  of  the  chyle  and  only 
finished  with  the  formation  of  the  animal  spirits, 
the  instrument  of  the  soul. 

And  nothing  could  be  better  connected,  for  each 
step  of  the  process  proceeded  naturally  from  the 
one  preceding;  the  aliment  taken  into  the  body 
was  converted  into  chyle  by  the  stomach  and  in- 
testines ;  blood  was  formed  from  this  chyle  in  the 
liver;  the  vital  spirits  were  exhalations  from  the 
blood  in  the  heart,  and  the  animal  spirits  were 
elaborated  from  the  vital  in  the  brain.  Finally, 
the  blood  acquired  its  temperature  from  the  heart; 
and  the  heart  found  in  the  blood  the  aliment  for  its 
innate  heat. 

But  nothing  could  be  more  false. 

Of  all  these  ideas,  these  views  so  well  arranged, 
of  this  theory  so  well  constructed,  and  of  all  this 

(1)  "  Quemaclmodum  ex  lignis  comburi  idoneis  qui  in  foco 
est  ignis  "  (De  curandi  ratione  per  sang,  mission.,  p.  16.) 

(2)  "  Respirationem  ingeniti  caloris  moderationem  servare 
"  (De  morb.  vulg.,  com.  v.,  p.  190.) 

(3)  "Refrigerat  ipsum   (cor)   inspiratio  quidem,  frigidam 
qualitatem  ei  affundens." — (De  usupartium,  lib.  vi.,  p.  148.) 

7 


76  CIRCULATION    OF  THE  BLOOD. 

ingenious  labor  of  the  human  mind,  nothing  was 
true  and  nothing  remains.  Galen  was  not  right 
upon  a  single  point.  He  said  that  the  chyle  is 
taken  up  by  the  veins,  which  is  not  so;  that  it  goes 
to  the  liver,  which  is  not  so ;  that  in  the  liver  the 
blood  changes  from  black  to  red,  and  that  is  not 
so,  while  his  spirits  are  but  a  word,  and  his  innate 
heat  only  a  dream. 

Voltaire  said  that  a  Frenchman  who  in  his 
time  went  from  Paris  to  London  found  things  much 
changed;  he  left  the  world  full,  he  found  it  empty; 
he  left  a  philosophy  which  explained  everything 
by  impulse  and  found  one  that  accounted  for  all  by 
attraction,  etc. 

We  must  admit  that  if  Galen  could  revisit  us 
and  examine  physiology  now  he  would  also  find 
things  much  changed !  He  believed  that  the  chyle 
was  carried  by  veins,  and  he  would  be  told  that 
there  are  special  vessels  for  its  transmission  very 
distinct  from  the  veins ;  he  thought  the  chyle  went 
to  the  liver,  he  would  learn  now  that  it  goes  to  the 
heart;  he  believed  that  the  change  in  the  blood 
from  black  to  red  took  place  in  the  liver,  he  would 
see  now  that  it  takes  place  in  the  lungs;  he  was 
very  sure  of  at  least  two  kinds  of  spirits,  the  vital 
and  the  animal,  and  now  he  would  be  told  that 
these  spirits  are  chimeras ;  finally,  he  believed  that 
animal  heat  was  an  innate  primitive  property, 
seated  in  the  heart,  and  continually  tempered, 


HISTORY  OF   THE   DISCOVERY.  77 

cooled,  by  the  lungs,  now  he  would  learn  that  the 
heart  has  no  such  property,  that  it  is  but  a  muscle, 
and  that  the  lungs,  instead  of  being  an  organ  for 
cooling  the  heat  of  the  heart  are  even  the  source  of 
the  heat  of  that  and  of  all  other  organs,  and  that 
no  such  thing  as  innate  heat  exists  in  the  body. 

Aselli  and  the  lacteals. 

The  ancients  knew  of  only  three  kinds  of  vessels, 
veins,  arteries,  and  nerves  (which  they  took  for 
vessels).1  The  veins  conducted  the  blood  properly 
speaking,  the  arteries  the  spirituous  blood,  and  the 
nerves  the  animal  spirits.2 

Such  was  the  condition  of  things.  Harvey  had 
not  yet  published  his  book,  for  it  was  in  1622,  when 
all  at  once  the  report  spread  that  an  anatomist  of 
Cremona,  a  professor  of  Pavia,  had  just  discovered 

(1)  Notwithstanding    Galen's    teachings;    he    knew   well 
enough  that  the  nerves  are  not  hollow  :  "  Nervi  qui  a  cerebro 
ac  spinali  medulla  oriuntur  nullam  habent  perspicuam  cavi- 
tatem." — (De  usu  pariium,  lib.  xv.,  p.  210.)     He  was  only  de- 
ceived in  regard  to  the  optic  nerves:    "Solis  his  nervis,  ante- 
quam  in  oculos  inserantur,  aperte  intus  sensibilis  quidem 
meatus  adest." — (De  nervorum  dissectione,  p.  53.) 

(2)  "  Sic  vencc  sanguinem  distribuunt,  arterio?  sanguinem 
cum  spiritu  vitali  permixtum,  nervi  animalem  spiritum." — 
(Aselli:  De  lactibus,  sive  lacteis  venis,  quarto  vasorum  mesardico- 
rum  genere  dissertatio,  1627,  p.  51.) 


78  CIRCULATION   OF  THE  BLOOD. 

a  fourth  order  of  vessels1 — white  vessels, — vessels 
distinct  from  arteries,  veins  and  nerves  and  which 
convey  the  chyle. 

Imagine,  if  it  is  possible  in  our  day,  the  effect 
produced  by  such  news.  The  whole  world  of 
science  was  moved  by  it.  The  ancients  had  not 
then  seen  all — had  not  described  everything;  one 
now  could  go  farther  than  Galen  and  than  Aris- 
totle ;  the  wisdom  of  antiquity  was  no  longer  the 
boundary  of  human  knowledge,  and  the  spirit  of 
modern  discovery  had  commenced  its  career. 

Aselli  has  told  us  himself,  and  in  a  most  simple 
manner,  how  the  great  discovery — the  first,  strictly 
speaking,  of  modern  discoveries — (for,  I  repeat, 
Harvey's  book  had  not  yet  appeared,)  was  made, 
and  accidentally  made.2 

He  had  just  demonstrated  upon  a  living  dog, 
and  less  for  himself  than  for  the  benefit  of  some 
friends,  the  recurrent  nerves.  From  the  recurrent 
nerves  he  was  requested  to  pass  to  the  movements 
of  the  diaphragm.  h.e  opened  the  abdomen  and 

(1)  "Prater  tria  ilia  vasorum  genera  mesenterium  pera- 
grantium  (the  veins,  the  arteries  and  the  nerves,)  reliquum  aliud 
est  genus,  quartum,  novum,  ac  ignotum  hactenus." — (De  lacti- 
bus,  etc.,  p.  18.) 

(2)  "A  me  prime,  quod  relegata  omni  ambitione  dixerim, 
abhinc  fere  triennium,  hoc  est  anno  adeo  1622,  casu  magis,  ut 
verum  fatear,  quam  consilio,  aut  data  in  id  peculiar!  opera, 
observatum," — (Ibid,  etc.,  p.  18.) 


HISTORY   OF  THE   DISCOVERY.  79 

immediately  exposed  a  most  beautiful  network  of 
•white  vessels.1 

What  were  these  vessels?  Could  they  be  ves- 
sels for  the  chyle  ?  That  was  the  inspiration  of 
genius!  Aselli  pricked  one  of  them;  he  saw  a 
white  liquid  exude,  and  in  a  transport  of  joy  which 
can  well  be  conceived,  he  cried  "with  Archimedes — 
"Eureka.'"2 

But  the  animal  died  and  all  disappeared.    Aselli 

opened  another  dog ;  no  white  vessels  were  to  be 

.seen!    Could  he  have  been  mistaken?    Happily  he 

remembered  that  the  first  dog  had  eaten  heartily 

(1)  "  Canem,  ad  diem  julii  23  ejusdem  anni,  bene*  habitum, 
beneque  pastum,   incidendum  vivum   sutnpseram,   amicorum 
quorumdam  rogatu,  quibus  recurrentes  nerves  videre  forte* 
placuerat.     Ea    nervorum   demonstratione   perfunctus  quum 
essem,  visum  est  eodem  in  cane,  eadem  opera,  diaphragmatis 
quoque  motum  observare.     Hoc  dum  conor,  et  earn  in  rem  ab- 
domen aperio,  intestinaque  cum  ventriculo  collecta  in  unum 
deorsum  manu  impello,  plurimos  repente,  eosque  tenuissimos, 
candidissimosque,   ceu  funiculos,  per  omne   mesenterium   et 
per  intestina,  infinitis  propemodum  propaginibus  disperses, 
conspicio." — (De  lactibus,  etc.,  p.  19.) 

(2)  "Rei  novitate  perculsus,  hsesi  aliquandiu  tacitus,  cum 
menti  variaj  occurrerent  qua)  inter  anatomicos  versantur,  de 

venis  mesara'icis,  et  eorum  officio  controversiae;  ut  me 

collegi  experiendi  causa,  adacto  acutissimo  scalpello,  unum  ex 
illis  et  majorem  funiculum  pertundo.     Vix  bene  ferieram,  et 
confestim  liquorem  album,  lactis  aut  cremoris  instar,  prosilire 
video.     Quo  viso,  cum  tenere  lastitiam  non  possem,  conversua 

ad  eos  qui  aderant:  Eureka,  inquam,  cum  Archimede " 

(Ibid.,  p.  19.) 


80  CIRCULATION  OF  THE  BLOOD. 

just  before  the  experiment,  while  the  second  one 
was  fasting.  He  took  another  and  fed  him  well ; 
some  hours  afterward  he  opened  its  abdomen  and 
the  white  vessels  were  evident,  as  in  the  first  one.1 
The  existence  of  these  white  vessels,  of  the  ves- 
sels of  the  chyle,  was  no  longer  doubtful.  Aselli 
named  them  lacteals,  because  they  contain  a  white 
liquid  similar  to  milk.2  This  liquid  is  the  chyle, 
and  these  lacteal  vessels  alone  convey  the  chyle;3 
the  veins  have  nothing  to  do  with  it. 

(1)  "Verum  eo  diu  frui  non  licuit.     Exspiravit  mox   inter 
haec  canis,  et  una  (dictu  iniram)  omnis  ilia  tot  vasorum  series 
congeriesque  defecta  candore  suo,  defecta  succo,  inter  manua 
ipsas  nostras  ac  pene  inter  oculos  ita  evanuit,  vix  ut  vestigia 

Bui  relinqueret  Conquisitus   ergo  canis  alius  in  diem 

posterum,  et  nulla  interposita  mora  die  eodem  apertus.    Porro 
minime,  ut  spes,  ita  successus  fuit.    Nulluiu  prorsus,  vel  mini- 
mum album  vasculum  in  conspectum  sese  dubat.     Et  jam  ab- 

jici   anomo  coeperam  Verum  in   memoriam  revocans, 

siccum  et  impastum  fuisse  canem,  quem  secandum  arripueram, 
suspicatusque,  quod  res  erat,  ne  intestinorum  inanitas  causa 
fuisset  vasorum  obliterationis,  etiam  tertio  rem  periclitari  volui, 
alio  rursus  in  id  comparato  cane.     Is  sectus  ad  diem  26,  hora 

circiter  sexta  postquam  cibus  illi  adhibitus  affatim  fuerat, 

nihil  fefellit  expectatio.    Omnia  qme  primus  luculenter  et  ad- 

amussim   exhibuit    Confirmatus   gemino   hoc    experi- 

mento,  et  nihil  amplius  de  re  ipsa  ambigens,  totum  me  dedi 
ad  perquirendam  earn." — (De  lactibus,  p.  19.) 

(2)  "Ego  vasa  haec,  aut  lacteas,  sive  albas  venas,  aut  lactes 
etiam  appellare  soleo." — (p.  23.)     "Non  lac  ipsum  magis  sim- 
ile lacti  est  quam  liquor  qui  in  illis  cernitur." — (p.  25.) 

(3)  "  Chylus  per  eas  labitur;  verissime  idem  ex  intestinis 
ab  iis  lacitur,  hoc  est  sorbetur  exhauriturque." — (p.  25.) 


HISTORY   OF   THE  DISCOVERY.  81 

Pecquet  and  the  reservoir  of  the  chyle. 

The  lacteals  then  convey  the  chyle ;  but  where 
do  they  carry  it  ?  Aselli  believed  it  was  to  the  liver. 
"The  use  of  our  veins,"  says  he,  "is  without  any 
doubt  to  carry  the  chyle,  and  also  without  any 
doubt  to  carry  it  to  the  liver."1 

The  chyle,  therefore,  still  went  to  the  liver,  and 
Galen's  principal  error  (the  principal  because  all 
the  others  depended  upon  it,  the  liver  being  sup- 
posed the  organ  of  sanguification  only  because  the 
chyle  was  carried  to  it,)  existed  still.  But  it  could 
not  maintain  its  ground  much  longer. 

In  1648,2  a  young  man  of  Dieppe,  who  had 
studied  medicine  at  Montpelier,  Jean  Pecquet, 
tired  of  cold  and  dumb3  facts  derived  from  the 
dead  organs  of  the  subject,  and  desiring  more  cor- 
rect knowledge,4  asked  it  of  the  living. 

He  commenced  a  series  of  experiments  and  re- 
searches upon  living  animals.  He  opened  the 

(1)  "  Actio  propria  venarum  nostrarum,  alisque  omni  dubi- 
tatione,  chyli  distributio  ad  jecur." — (De  lactibus,  p.  51.) 

(2)  " Assiduum  ferme  trium  annorum  laborem  co- 

arctavi." — (Experimenia  nova  anatomica,  quibus  ignotum  hactenus 
chyli  receptaculum,  et  ab  eo  per  thoracem  in  ramos  usque  subclaviot 
vasa  lactea  deteguntur,  1G51,  p.  17.) 

(3)  "Post  acquisitam  ante  annos  aliquot,  ex  cadaverum 
eectione,  mutam  alioqui  frigidamque  sapientiara." — (p.  4.) 

(4)  "  Placuit  ex  vigenti  vivorum    animantimn  harmonia 
verum  scientiam  experimere." — (p.  4.) 


82  CIRCULATION   OF  THE  BLOOD. 

thorax  of  a  dog;  in  taking  out  the  heart  he  ob- 
served in  the  midst  of  the  flowing  blood  a  white 
liquid  which  he  at  first  took  for  pus.1  A  little 
study  convinced  him  that  this  white  and  milky 
liquid  was  the  same  as  that  contained  in  the  lac- 
teals — was  the  chyl<?\  and  farther  observation 
showed  that  it  was  contained  in  the  canal  which 
carries  it  to  the  subclavian  veins  and  that  by  these 
veins  it  is  poured  into  the  heart;3  another  step 
was  to  learn  that  this  canal  commences  by  a  sort 
of  reservoir  or  pocket,4  and  another  that  allilie  lac- 

(1)  "  Cor,  rescissis  quibus  reliquo  adhseret   corpori  vascu- 
lorum  retinaculis,  avello ;  turn  exhausta  quoe  statim  restagna- 
verat  copia  cruoris,  albicantem  subinde  lactei  liquoris  nee  certe 

parum  fluid!  scaturiginem  ,  miror  effluere, (p.  4) 

sic  ut  dilitescentis  intra  thoracem  forte  saniem  abcessus,  ex 
cruenti  puris  imagine,  suspicarer." — (Experimenta  nova  ana- 
tomica,  etc.,  p.  5.) 

(2)  " Candidas  apprim^  liquor,  et  effuso  per  mesen- 

terium  chylo  simillimus;  sic  ut  inter  utrumque  collates  invi- 
cem  et  nitor  et  odor  et  sapor  et  consistentia  nullum  inesse  dis- 
crimen  ostenderint." — (p.  5.) 

(3)  " Unicus,  crassiorque  canalis,  a  receptaculo  chy- 

lum  ad  quartam  dorsi  vertebram  devolvit,  indeque  bifidus  per 
subclaviorum  (ut  in  cane  notavimus)  ostiola  foraminum  eum- 
dem  in  cavum  exonerat." — (p.  17.) 

(4)  " Lacerata,  forte  sinistrorsum  ad  duodecimam  cir- 

citer  dorsi  vertebram  ampulla,  cujus  est  apprime  tenuis  mem- 
branula,  restagnantem  demiratus  lactis  efifusi  copiam,  suspicor 
non  exiguum  illic  ejusdem  liquoria  occludi  receptaculum" — 
(p.  11.) 


HISTORY   OF  THE  DISCOVERY.  83 

teals  empty  into  tjiis  reservoir  which  is  thus  a  com- 
mon receptacle ;  *  and  lastly  he  learned  that  none 
of  these  vessels,  absolutely  none,  go  to  the  liver.2 

The  chyle  does  not  then  go  to  the  liver;  and 
since  it  does  not  go  to  that  organ  can  not  there  be 
changed  into  blood;  the  liver,  therefore,  is  not  the 
organ  of  sanguification ; 3  and  the  theory  of  Galen, 
a  theory  which  had  lived  through  fifteen  centuries, 
•was  finally  destroyed. 

Rudbeck  and  the  lymphatic  vessels ;  particularly  those  of 
the  Liver. 

But  this  was  not  all.  One  discovery  was  the 
cause  of  another.  The  discovery  of  the  lacteals 
occasioned  that  of  the  receptaculum  cJiyli,  and  this 
caused  the  discovery  of  the  lymphatics. 

In  1650,  and  this  time  again  a  young  man,  Olaiis 
Rudbeck,  afterward  one  of  the  most  learned  men 
of  Sweden,  sought  for  the  common  trunk  of  the 

(1)  "Sic  tandem  patuit  reconditi  chyli  penus,  et  tantis  la- 

borimus  quaesitum  receptaculum" (Experimenta  nova,  an- 

atomica,  etc.,  p.  14.)     "  Lancinata  illico  receptaculi  tunica  chy- 

lum  effudit;  et  secutus  per  ejusdem  vulneris  rimain  

dubium  omne  revulsit  scaturienti  evidentia." — (p.  15.) 

(2)  "Nullus  ad  jecur  porrigi  inventus  est." — (p.  13.) 

(3)  "  Hactenus  e  mesenterio  chylum  in  hepatis  parenchyma 
opinio  protrusit,  non  veritas,  et  sanguin.eo  artificii  tribuit  im- 
meritam visceri  prterogativam." — (p.  13.) 

8 


84  CIRCULATION  OF  THE  BLOOD. 

lacteal  vessels  and  found  it.1  He  did  not  know 
that  Pecquet  had  just  discovered  it.  In  seeking 
for  this  chyle-duct  Ruflbeck  remarked  upon  the 
liver  certain  transparent  watery  vessels,  which  he 
recognized  immediately  as  new  and  peculiar — as 
vessels  distinct  from  the  lacteals.2  These  vessels 
were  lymphatics. 

Rudbeck  named  them  hepatico-aqueous  vessels; 
hepatic  because  they  came  from  the  liver,  and 
aqueous  on  account  of  the  transparent  fluid  which 
filled  them.3 

He  saw  their  origin,  their  valves,4  their  termina- 

(1)  Nova  exercitatio  anatomica,  exhibens  ductus  hepcticos  aquo- 
sos  et  vasa  glandularum  serosa  (in  Mangeti  Bibliothica  anatomica. 
Genevas,  1699,  t.  ii.,  p.  729.) 

(2)  "  Dum  anno  1650  et  1651,  in  venarum  lactearum  origi- 
nem  et  insertionem  inquirendam  versabar,  injectaque  supra 
venam  portse  cum  ductibus  cholidocis  ligatura,  non  semel  ap- 
paruere  ductus   manifesto  ab  hepate  ad  ligaturam  intumes- 
centes  "  (p.  730.) 

(3)  "  Haec  vasa  ductuum  hepaticorum  aquosorum  nomine  in- 
digitanda  duxi:  et  quidem  ductuum  hepaticorum,  quum  et  hu- 
morem  ferant  ac  ducant,  et  quod  ilium  ab  hepate  accipiant, 
indeque  suam  originem  depromant;  deinde  aquosorum,  quod 
tali  humore  ipsorum  cavitas  infarta  sit." — (p.  730.) 

(4)  "Figuram   mirabiliter   nodosam,  ob  contentas 

valvulas  (p.  731.)     Aselli  had  seen  the  valves  of  the 

lacteals,  "  in  his  illud  admiratione  dignum,  quod  pluribus  val- 
vulis,  sive  ostiolis,  interstincti  sunt."    (De  laciibus,  etc.,  p.  38;) ' 
and  Pecquet  those  of  the  thoracic  duct:  "Non  desunt  suae  lac- 
teis  per  thoracem  valvulee." — (Experim.  nov.,  etc.,  p.  12.) 


HISTORY   OF  THE   DISCOVERY.  85 

tion  in  the  receptacle  or  reservoir  of  the  chyle;1 
and  he  is  the  first  who  observed  these  points, 
who  discovered;  hut  in  regard  to  the  discovery  of 
the  lymphatic  vessels  which  are  spread  everywhere 
through  the  system,  he  is  only  the  second. 

Thomas  Bartholin  and  the  lymphatics  of  the  entire  body. 

Rudbeck  discovered  the  lymphatic  vessels  1650- 
51; — Thomas  Bartholin  discovered  them  1651-52  ;a 
he  named  them  lymphatic  vessels;3  he  studied  them 
with  attention  and  with  admirable  perseverance; 
he  sought  for  them  everywhere,  and  he  found  them 
everywhere,  in  the  viscera,  in  the  extremities,  etc.,4 
and  whatever  their  origin  he  saw,  with  Rud- 
beck, that  they  emptied  into  a  common  trunk,  into 
the  receptaculum  cliyli? 

The  lymphatics   and  the  lacteals  have  then  a 

(1)  "In  vesiculum  chyli sese  insinuant." — (Magneti, 

Bill,  anat.,  t.  ii.,  p.  730.) 

(2)  "Observavimus  quidem  saepe  in  canibus  dissectis,  im- 
primis 15  decemb.  1651,  et  9  janu.  1652,  ex  hepate  aquosus 

ductua  prodeuntes   ( Vasorum  lymphaticorum  Historia 

nova,  in  Opuscula  nova,  etc.,  p.  84.) 

(8)  "  A  content!  liquoris  conditione,  seu  limpida  aqua  et 
lympha,  dicenda  vasa  lymphatica  "  (p.  96.) 

(4)  "Exortus  lymphaticorum  vasorum  est  ab  extremis  par- 
tibus,  seu  artubus  et  visceribus  "  (p.  97.) 

(5)  "Vasa  aquosa inseruntur  in  receptaculum  chyli 

"  (P-  97.) 


86  CIRCULATION   OF   THE   BLOOD. 

common  trunk  and  a  common  receptacle,  the  re- 
servoir and  the  duct  of  the  chyle ;  and  by  this  duct 
their  contents  are  poured  into  the  subclavian  veins 
and  by  them  carried  to  the  heart. 

The  heart  is,  therefore,  the  common  rendezvous, 
the  center  of  the  circulatory  system.  And  this  sys- 
tem is  not  composed  alone  of  arteries  and  veins, 
as  Galen  taught,  and  as  Harvey  believed,  but  of 
arteries,  veins,  lacteals  and  lymphatics.  The  com- 
plete unity  of  this  great  system  was  finally  found. 

Thomas  Bartholin  and  the  obsequies  of  the  liver. 

Thomas  Bartholin  terminates  his  "History  of  the 
lymphatic  vessels"  by  a  chapter  entitled:  Post  in- 
vento  vasa  lymphatica  hepatis  exsequioe. 

Pecquet  having  demonstrated  that  the  lacteals 
do  not  go  to  the  liver,  that  the  chyle  is  not  taken 
there,  and  that  the  liver,  therefore,  can  not  be  the 
organ  of  sanguification,  it  was  time,  in  the  language 
of  Bartholin,  to  perform  the  obsequies  of  the  liver. 
But  why  does  not  Bartholin  speak  of  their  per- 
formance before  the  discovery  of  the  lymphatics? 
Because  the  first  time  he  saw  the  lymphatics  of 
the  liver  he  took  them  for  lacteals  going  to  that 
organ.1  The  liver  then,  he  says  to  himself,  re- 

(1)  ''Fnde  quum  pellucido  liquore  splenderent,  nee  aliud 

vas  cognitum  adhuc  esset  tamdiu  pro  lacteis  venditavi 

Exinde  dubitare  coepi,  visis   aquosis  ductibus,  in  artu- 

bus,  illis  similibus  "  (p.  88.) 


HISTORY   OF  THE  DISCOVERY.  87 

ceives  a  part  of  the  chyle-vessels  and  a  portion 
of  the  chyle ;  it  must  have,  therefore,  a  certain  part 
to  play  in  sanguification ;  this  function  must  be 
divided  between  it  and  the  heart.1 

But  Bartholin  soon  recognized  the  true  nature 
of  the  vessels  which  had  deceived  him ;  they  were 
not  lacteals  but  lymphatics;2  instead  of  going  to 
the  liver  they  came  from  it ;  they  led  to  the  heart, 
and  consequently  the  cause  of  the  liver  was  for- 
ever lost.3 

Bartholin  treated  the  liver,  which  he  compared  to 
a  great  hero,  maximus  hero'ibus,*  as  all  great  heroes 
are  treated  when  their  cause  is  lost,  he  abandoned 
it;  and  in  a  vein  of  learned  gaiety,  after  having 
written  its  obsequies,  he  composed  an  epitaph  for 
it,"  of  which  the  sense  is,  that  the  liver,  so  long 
famous,  by  means  of  an  usurped  title,  is  now 
nothing  more  than  a  poor  liver  reduced  to  making 
bile.5 

(1)  "Partitus  sum  munia  cordis  et  hepatis  in  opere  confi- 
ciendi  sanguinis,  quia  ad  cor  lacteas  thoracicas  ferri  obser- 
vavi,  et  ad  bepar  non  nullas  (p.  108.) 

(2)  "Vidimus  quippe  vasa  ilia  prope  hepar,  sui  esse  ge- 
neris,  a  contento    liquore   lymphatica    nobis    dicta    " 

(p.  109.) 

(3)  "Noluimus  antiquatte  opinioni  obstinaiius  inhoerere,  aut 
labantes  hepatis  derelicti  partes  diutiiis  sequi." — (p.  109.) 

(4)  Vasorum  lymphaticorum,  etc.,  p.  111. 

(5)  Manuel  anatomique,  Paris,  1661,  p.  688. 


00  CIRCULATION   OF  THE   BLOOD. 

Riolan  and  Harvey. 

Harvey  had  no  sooner  published  his  work  upon 
the  circulation  of  the  blood  than  twenty  anatomists 
took  up  the  pen  against  the  discovery.  Harvey 
did  not  reply.  The  only  man  to  whom  Harvey 
ever  did  the  honor  of  responding  was  Riolan.  It 
was  because  Riolan  was  the  best  anatomist  of  those 
times.  Thomas  Bartholin  who  dedicated  to  him 
his  "Histoire  des  vaisseaux  lymphatics,"  calls  him 
the  greatest  anatomist  of  France  and  of  the  world : 
Maximo  orbis  et  urbis  Parisiensis  anatomico. 

Riolan  passed  all  his  life  in  seeking,  in  demon- 
strating, and  discovering  what  the  ancients  had 
taught,  and  in  opposing  the  doctrines  of  the  mod- 
erns. He  rejected  the  circulation  of  the  blood,  the 
lacteals,  the  receptaculum  chyli  and  the  lymphatics. 
"Everybody  is  discovering  something  new  now-a- 
days,"  he  exclaims;1  and  it  was  this  that  grieved 
him.  "Pecquet,"  he  continues,  "has  done  much 
more ;  he  has  commenced  to  demolish  the  structure 
and  the  composition  of  the  human  body  by  his  new 
and  unheard-of  doctrines,  which  completely  over- 
turn the  science  of  medicine,  ancient  arid  modern, 
or  ours."2  "And  modern^  or  ours"  is  a  curious 
expression!  but,  alas!  the  modern  belongs  to  no 
one;  scarcely  does  it  exist  before  it  is  past  and 
another  modern  has  arrived! 

(1)  Manuel  anat.,  p.  689.  (2)  Ibid.,  p.  689. 


HISTORY   OF   THE  DISCOVERY.  89 

Meanwhile,  Riolan  did  not  deny  the  existence  of 
the  lacteals;  but  he  held  still  that  they  went  to  the 
liver.1  Harvey  denied  up  to  this  time  the  existence 
of  the  lacteals  and  it  is  both  amusing  and  singular 
to  find  that  Riolan  reproaches  him  tor  it.  "  Har- 
vey," says  he  "a  very  expert  anatomist,  the  author 
and  inventor  of  the  circulation  of  the  blood  by  the 
heart  and  through  the  lungs,  makes  but  little  of 
these  lacteal  veins,  believing  and  sustaining  the 
doctrine  that  the  chyle  passes  by  the  mesenteric 
veins,  from  whence  it  is  drawn  by  the  liver,  all  of 
which  astonishes  me  much,  since  they  truly  exist 
and  we  can  plainly  see  them."2 

Here  then  is  Harvey,  the  author  of  the  most 
beautiful  of  modern  discoveries,  reproached  by  his 
great  adversary  Riolan,  and  reproached  for  his 
opposition  to  modern  doctrines! 

The  illustrious  and  learned  historian  of  medicine, 
Sprengel,  says  on  this  occasion:  "A  still  greater 
blot  upon  the  literary  character  of  Harvey  is  the 
contempt  which  he  affected  for  all  subsequent  dis- 
coveries." These  words  are  unjust.  Sprengel  did 
not  reflect  sufficiently  upon  the  extent  to  which 
deep  reflection  exhausts  and  how  much  meditation 
is  necessary  for  a  discovery  of  a  certain  order. 

(1)  "  For  myself,  I  believe  that  these  lacteal  veins  are  not 
useless,  but  that  they  serve  to  carry  the  chyle  from  the  intes- 
tines to  the  liver." — (p.  696.) 

(2)  Manuel  anatomique,  p.  695.) 


90  CIRCULATION   OF  THE   BLOOD. 

Harvey  discovered  the  circulation  of  the  blood;  he 
gave  us  a  crowd  of  facts  and  views,  and  an  admi- 
rable general  law  on  generation.1  After  this  we 
should  admire  him — bless  him — and  not  demand 
too  much  of  him. 

Aristotle  and  the  formation  of  the  blood  by  the  heart. 

Galen  admitted  three  principal  organs,  the  liver, 
the  heart,  and  the  brain ;  from  the  liver  proceeded 
the  veins,  from  the  heart  the  arteries,  and  from  the 
brain  the  nerves.  According  to  Aristotle  all  these 
came  from  the  heart:  veins,  arteries  and  nerves.2 

Aristotle  believed  that  the  blood  was  formed  in 
the  heart;3  and  this  opinion  in  regard  to  the  forma- 
tion of  the  blood  by  the  heart,  although  for  a  long 
time  superseded  by  the  contrary  opinion  of  its 
formation  by  the  liver,  remained  in  science.  Ser- 
vetus  makes  allusion  to  it  in  that  immortal  passage 
which  I  have  already  cited,  where  he  says:  "The 
yellow  color  is  given  to  the  blood  by  the  lungs  and 

(1)  That  every  living  being  proceeds  from  an  egg:     Omne 
vivum  ex  ovo. 

(2)  "The  heart  is  the  source  of  all  the  veins." — (History  of 
animals,  book  iii.,  chap,  iv.)     "  Let  us  pass  to  the  nerves ;  they 
likewise  originate  in  the  heart." — (Ibid.,  chap,  v.)     Kote  that 
Aristotle  united  under  the  common  name  of  veins,  the  veins  and 
the  arteries. 

(3)  "The  liquid  which  proceeds  from  the  food  flows  conlin- 
ally  to  the  heart;  it  is  this  liquid  which  forms  blood." — (Of 
respiration,  chap,  xx.) 


HISTORY   OF   TIIE  DISCOVERY.  91 

not  by  the  heart."  Caesalpinus  adopts  it  com- 
pletely when  he  says :  "  the  blood,  conducted  to  the 
heart  by  the  veins,  receives  there  its  last  perfec- 
tion, and  this  acquired  it  is  carried  to  all  parts  of 
the  body." 

Thus,  so  soon  as  it  was  proved  that  the  chyle 
was  carried  to  the  heart  and  not  to  the  liver  every- 
body returned  to  the  opinion  of  Aristotle,  to  the 
belief  that  the  blood  was  formed  by  the  heart. 
"This  plainly  proves,"  says  Pecquet,  "the  truth 
of  the  teachings  of  the  Prince  of  the  Peripate- 
ciens,  who  held  the  heart  to  be  the  origin  of  the 
veins,  and  that  it  is  the  organ  for  the  formation 
of  blood."1  "It  is  in  the  heart,"  says  Rudbeck, 
"  that  the  blood,  being  brought  from  all  parts  of  the 
body  is  mixed  with  chyle,  elaborated,  perfected  and 
colored." 2  Bartholin,  as  AVC  have  just  seen,  divided 
the  function  of  sanguification  between  the  liver  and 
the  heart. 

They  escaped  one  error  only  to  fall  into  another. 
Two  men  however  soon  combatted  this  other  error. 

(1)  " Sicut  evincatur  nobili  testimonio,  quum  appo- 
site Peripateticorum  princeps,  et  venarum  asserat  cor  esse 
principium,  et  sanguinis  officinam." — Experimenta  nova  ana- 
tomica,  etc.,  p.  3.) 

(2)  "Existimo   itaque   hoc   opus   naturae   (sanguificationis 
nempe),  hunc  in  modum   fieri.     Primo,  sanguis  a  nutritione 
residuus,  et  cordi  advectus,  una  cum  chylo,  motu  ac  calore 
cordis  concoquitur,  coloratur,  attenuatur,  ac  distribuitur." — 
(Mangeti,  Bibliotheca  anatomica,  t.  ii.,  p.  733.) 


92  CIRCULATION   OF  THE  BLOOD. 

Stenon  demonstrated  the  heart  to  be  nothing 
more  than  a  simple  organ  of  movement — a  muscle ; 
and  Lower  showed  that  the  blood  changes  its  color 
from  black  to  red  in  the  lungs. 

Stenon  and  the  true  use  of  the  heart. 

Stenon  was  a  man  of  genius.  Deluc  called  him 
the  first  true  geologist,  because  he  was  the  first  who 
correctly  saw  the  disposition  and  structure  by 
layers,  the  regular  stratification  of  the  surface  of 
the  globe;  and  I  call  him  the  first  true  anatomist 
of  the  brain,  because  he  was  the  first  who  recog- 
nized the  fibres  of  the  brain,  that  is  to  say  the  most 
important  part  of  the  structure  of  this  organ. 

"It  is  certain,"  says  Stenon,  "and  demonstrable 
to  the  eye  as  well  as  to  the  reason,  that  the  heart 
is  a  muscle,  that  it  is  all  a  muscle  and  nothing  but 
a  muscle ;  so  that  it  can  be  neither  the  organ  of 
internal  heat,  nor  the  seat  of  the  soul;  nor  does  it 
produce  the  vital  spirits,  or  the  blood,  or  give 
origin  to  any  other  humor  whatever.1 

(1)  "Si  certuin  est,  quod  certum  esse  sensuum  ope  adjuta 
evincit  ratio,  in  corde  nihil  desiderari  quod  musculo  datum, 
nee  quod  musculo  denegatum  in  corde  inveniri,  non  erit  cor 
amplius  sui  generis  substantia,  adeoque  nee  certte  substantise, 
ut  ignis  calidi  innati,  animse  sedes,  nee  certi  humoris,  ut  san- 
guinis,  generator,  nee  spirituum  quorumdam  vitalium  pro- 
ductor." — (De  musculis  specimen,  p.  523,  in  Mangeti  Biblioth. 
anat.)  Stenon's  book  is  dated  1664. 


HISTORY   OF  THE  DISCOVERY.  93 

Lower  and  the  coloration  of  the  blood  by  the  lungs;  or, 
rather,  by  the  air. 

Lower's  book  upon  the  heart  is  short,  full,  excel- 
lent.1 His  was  one  of  the  finest  minds  ever  de- 
voted to  physiology.  His  advances  are  sure,  his 
views  clear,  his  experiments  judicious. 

It  is  evident  that  the  right  ventricle  has  the  same 
structure  as  the  left ;  the  same  conclusions  may  there- 
fore be  drawn  from  the  one  as  from  the  other. 
On  examining  now  the  blood  of  the  vena  cava,  i.  e. 
blood  which  has  not  yet  traversed  the  right  ven- 
tricle, and  the  blood  of  the  pulmonary  artery  which 
is  just  leaving  the  ventricle,  it  will  be  found  that 
they  are  both  just  alike;  they  are  both  the  same 
blood,  the  venous  or  black  blood.2 

If  the  trachea  of  a  living  animal  be  tied  so  that 
the  lung  can  receive  no  more  air,  then  the  blood 
of  the  carotid  artery  will  be  black  like  that  of  the 
jugular  vein;  i.  e.  blood  which  has  just  come  from 
the  left  ventricle  is  the  same  as  that  which  has  not 
yet  arrived  there.3 

(1)  It  appeared  in  1669. 

(2)   "  Quum  par  sit  utriusque  ventriculi  officium  

quidni   color  in  dextro  pariter  imimitari   debeat?     At  certd 
constat  sanguinem  ex  arteria  pulmonali  eductum  venoso  per 
omnia  similem  esse,  crassamentum  ejus  nempe  obscuri  coloria 
est  (Tractatus  de  corde,  etc.,  edition  of  1740,  p.  184.) 

(3)  "  Quinimo  nee  a  sinistro  cordis  ventriculo  novum  hunc 
ruborem  sanguini  impertiri  certissimo  hoc  expereminto  con- 


94  CIRCULATION  OF  THE  BLOOD. 

If,  in  a  dog  which  has  just  expired,  the  yet  fluid 
blood  be  pushed  from  the  vena  cava  into  the  lungs, 
and  at  the  same  time  air  be  forced  into  them,  the 
blood  of  the  pulmonary  veins  immediately  becomes 
red.1 

Finally,  and  this  is  an  experiment  which  is  only 
surpassed  in  beauty  by  the  finest  of  Bichat's,  if  the 
thorax  of  a  living  dog  be  ojpened  the  lungs  collapse, 
receive  no  more  air,  and  the  blood  of  the  pulmo- 
nary veins  is  black;  if  air  be  forced  in,  the  blood 
becomes  red;  if  the  insufflation  be  suspended  it 
again  becomes  black,  and  again  changes  to  red  on 
the  insufflation  being  recommenced.2 

fici  potest:   si  nimirum  aspera  arteria  in  collo  nudata 

discindatur,  et  immisso  subere  arete  desuper  ligetur,  ne  quid 
aeris  in  pulmones  ingrediatur,  sanguis  ex  arteria  cervical! 

simul  discissa  effluens,  totus  venosus  pariter  et  atri 

coloris  apparebit,  non  aliter  quam  si  vena  jugulari  pertusa 
profusus  fuisset "  (p.  184.) 

(1)  (:Postrem6,  ne  quis  ultra  vel  dubitandi  locus  supersit, 
experiri  animum  subiit  in  cane  strangulate,  postquam  sensus 
illfim  et  vita  omnis  deseruissent,  an  sanguis  adhuc  fluidus,  e* 
vena  cava  in  dextrum  cordis  ventriculum  et  pulmones  impul- 
sus,  pariter  floridus  per  venam  pneumonicam  totus  rediret; 

itaque  propulso  sanguine,  atque  insufflatis  simul pul- 

monibus,  exspectationi  'eventus  optime  respondebat,  quippe 
seque  purpureus  in  patinam  excipiebatur,  ac  si  ex  arteria 
viventis  effusus  fuisset." — (p.  185.) 

(2)  "Expertus  sum  sanguinem,  qui  totus  venosi  instar  sub- 
nigricante  colore  pulmones  intrarat,  arteriosum   omnino  et 
floridum  ex  illis  rediisse,  si  enim  abscissa  anteriore  parte  pec- 


HISTORY   OF  THE  DISCOVERY.  95 

It  is,  therefore,  in  the  lungs  alone,  and  by  the  air 
alone,  that  the  black  blood  is  changed  into  red; 
and  of  the  four  principal  errors  of  Galen,  not  one 
now  remained.  All  four  were  destroyed,  and  the 
destruction  of  each  is  the  glory  of  a  different  man. 
Aselli  taught  us  that  the  chyle  is  carried  by  special 
vessels  and  not  by  veins ;  Pecquet  that  it  goes  to 
the  heart  and  not  to  the  liver ;  Stenon  that  the 
heart  is  a  simple  muscle  and  not  the  originator  of 

toris,  et  folle  in  asperam  arteriam  immisso,  pulmonibus  conti- 

nenterinsufflatis, vena  pneumonica  prope  auriculam  sinis- 

tram  pertundatur,  sanguis  totus  purpureus  et  floridus  in  admo- 
tum  vasculum  exsiliet;  atque  quamdiu  pulmonibus  recens  usque 
aer  hoc  modo  suggeritur  sanguis  ad  plures  uncias.  imo  libras, 
per  totum  coccineus  crumpet,  non  aliter  quam  si  ex  arteria 

vulnerata  exciperetur  "  (p.  186.)     "One   of  the  best 

methods,"  says  Bichat,  "  to  judge  of  the  change  of  color  of  the 
blood,  I  believe  is  the  one  of  which  I  make  use.  It  consists 
first  in  adapting  to  the  divided  trachea  a  stop-cock  which 
may  be  opened  or  closed  at  pleasure;  and  then  in  opening  an 
artery,  such  as  the  carotid,  or  the  femoral,  so  as  to  observe 
the  alterations  of  color  in  the  blood  as  it  flows  out." — (Re- 
cherches  physiologiques  sur  la  vie  et  la  mart. — De  lamort  des  vr- 
ganes  par  celle  du  poumon,  art.  viii.  §  i.) — "  1.  Adapt  a  tube  with 
a  stop-cock  to  the  trachea  exposed  and  divided ;  2.  Open  the 
abdomen  so  as  to  expose  the  intestines,  mesentery,  etc. 
3.  Close  the  stop-cock.  At  the  end  of  two  or  three  minutes 
the  bright  red  tint  which  enlivens  the  whiteness  of  the  peri- 
toneum and  which  this  membrane  derives  from  the  numerous 
vessels  distributed  over  it,  will  become  dark  and  dull,  and 
this  change  may  be  repeated  again  and  again  by  opening  and 
closing  the  stop-cock." — (Ibid.,  art.  vi.,  g  ii.) 


96  CIRCULATION   OF   THE   BLOOD. 

heat;  Lower  demonstrated  that  it  is  in  the  lungs  and 
not  in  the  liver  that  the  elaboration  of  the  blood  is 
completed,  and  the  conversion  of  the  black  blood 
into  red  takes  place. 

So  much  for  the  four  principal  errors  of  the 
theory  of  Galen.  There  remain  only  two  acces- 
sory ones — that  of  the  spirits  and  that  of  innate 
heat.  Let  us  give  a  rapid  glance  at  the  manner  of 
their  fall. 

The  spirits. 

We  know  that  of  Galen's  three  kinds  of 
spirit  the  moderns  only  adopted  one,  the  animal 
spirits.  "The  ancients  admitted,"  says  Bordeu, 
"three  sorts  of  spirits;  and  it  is  not  easy  to -under- 
stand by  what  fatality  the  natural  and  the  vital 
have  not  been  able  to  maintain  themselves  and 
have  succumbed,  while  the  animal  still  subsist."1 
Begging  Bordeu's  pardon,  nothing  is  easier  to  un- 
derstand. It  was  because  Descartes  introduced 
the  animal  spirits  into  his  philosophy,  and  did  not 
introduce  the  others.  The  fortune  of  the  animal 
spirits  in  modern  times  depended  entirely  upon  the 
philosophy  of  Descartes.  As  long  as  that  philoso- 
phy existed  they  remained  in  being  and  when  it 
fell  they  fell  with  it.  I  say  when  this  philosophy 

(1)  Recherches  anatomiques  sur  la  position  des  glandes  el  stir 
leur  action,  $  xxxiv. 


HISTORY   OF   THE  DISCOVERY.  97 

fell, — I  speak  of  the  exterior  of  the  philosophy,  of 
its  forms,  of  its  applications,  of  its  phrases",  of  the 
ideas  it  borrowed  from  imperfect  physiology  and 
physics;  for,  in  regard  to  the  essential,  the  founda- 
tion— its  spirit  and  its  method — it  can  not  fall. 
Far  from  it;  the  more  we  study  man,  or  that  which 
is  really  man,  the  reason,  the  soul,  the  more  we  shall 
appreciate  the  truth  of  the  philosophy  of  Des- 
cartes, and  the  we  shall  feel  its  greatness  and 
its  grandeur. 

Innate  heat. 

Of  all  the  errors  of  Galen,  or,  to  speak  more 
correctly,  of  ancient  physiology  (for  this  is  not 
alone  Galen's  error,  but  that  of  Aristotle,  of  Hip- 
pocrates, and  of  all  antiquity),  that  which  lasted  the 
longest  was  the  one  in  regard  to  innate  heat.  This 
only  gave  way  before  modern  chemistry,  and  then, 
not  immediately. 

In  spite  of  the  miracles  of  modern  chemistry, 
the  decomposition  of  the  air,  the  separation  of  the 
air  into  respirable  and  non-respirable  portions, 
showing  in  the  respirable  element  the  cause  of 
the  coloration  of  the  blood,  and  in  the  decomposi- 
tion of  the  air  by  respiration  the  source  of  animal 
heat,  more  than  one  old  physiologist  resisted  still. 

Fabre,  an  ingenious  physiologist,  but  of  narrow 
ideas,  (and  of  which  the  least  worthy  is  the  one 
which  Broussais  has  borrowed  from  him,  of  irrita- 


98  CIRCULATION   OF  THE   BLOOD. 

tion  being  the  sole  cause  of  all  the  phenomena  of 
life,)  Fabre  held  that  animal  heat  was  the  simple 
effect  of  irritability  and  had  for  its  focus  the  heart, 
the  most  irritable  organ  of  the  economy.1 

Barthez,  a  profound  physiologist,  but  one  "who 
saw  the  origin  of  physical  phenomena  in  meta- 
physical causes,2  maintained  animal  heat  to  be  an 
affection  of  the  vital  principle,  a  generative  affec- 
tion producing  the  heat,3  and  that  the  respired  air 
cooled  the  blood.* 

Fouquet,  the  great  founder  of  chemical  study 
in  France,  said  of  these  new  theories :  "  They  are 
the  work  of  youngsters  and  I  am  now  so  old  that 
it  is  not  worth  while  to  make  myself  acquainted 
with  them."  How  many  men  have  been  able  to 

(1)  "I  believe  we  are  able  to  attribute  animal  heat  to  irri- 
tability."— (Essai  sur  lesfacultes  de  I'ame,  1787,  p.  40.)     "The 
heart,  on  account  of  the  multitude  of  its  fibres,  and  the  force 
of  their  contraction,  should  be  regarded  as  the  principal  focus 
from  whence  emanates  that  heat  which  the  blood  carries  to 
all  parts  of  the  body. — (Ibid.  p.  41.) 

(2)  Upon  this  vice  of  philosophy,  see  the  author's  Histoire 
des  travaux  de  Buffon^  and  his  Histoire  de  Fcntendle. 

(3)  "L'affection  du  principe  vital,  qui  est  regenera- 

trice  de  la  chaleur"  (Nouveauz  elements  de  la  science  de 

Fhomme,  Paris,  1806,  t.  i.,  p.  304.) 

(4)  A  la  suite  des  effets  que  1'air,  nouvellement  respire, 
produit  a  la  surface  des  vaisseaux.  aeriens  du  poumon  qu'il 
rafraichit."— (Ibid.  p.  303.) 


HISTORY  OF  THE  DISCOVERY.  99 

speak  thus!  And  we  must  add  that  this  Fouquet, 
so  hostile  to  modern  ideas  was  an  ardent  supporter 
of  the  doctrines  of  the  ancients.  Seated  in  his 
professional  chair  he  never  pronounced  the  name 
of  Hippocrates  without  uncovering  his  head !  The 
erudite  of  all  kinds  resemble  a  little  La  Bruyere, 
— they  have  seen  even  the  Tower  of  Babel  but 
have  not  visited  Versailles. 
9 


IV. 

SARPI   AND    THE   VALVES    OF   THE    VEINS. 

I  have  said  but  a  word  of  Sarpi  and  that  is  not 
enough. 

The  learned  author  of  a  very  remarkable  analy- 
sis of  the  work  of  M.  Bianchi  Giovini  upon  Sarpi, 
published  in  the  London  and  Westminster  Review, 
for  April,  1838,  has  re-opened  a  question  which 
seemed  to  have  been  decided.1 

First,  M.  Giovini  produces  in  favor  of  Sarpi  a 
new  document ;  second,  the  author  to  whom  I 
allude,  after  having  placed  Farvey's  fame  in  safety 
(which  was  his  first  care,)  becomes  much  less  care- 
ful in  regard  to  the  others,  and  appears  even  too 
compliant  when  the  question  is  only  in  regard  to 
Fabricius  ab  Acquapendente. 

I  have  already  said  that  the  discovery  of  the 
circulation  of  the  blood  does  not  belong  to  any 
single  man.  This  grand  discovery  was  only  made 
little  by  little  and  part  by  part ;  more  than  twenty 
anatomists  took  part  in  it. 

Harvey  demonstrated  the  circulation  of  the 
blood;  but  he  came  from  Padua,  where  Falri- 

(1)  See  on  page  33  the  opinion  of  a  master  in  Italian  criti- 
cism, Tiraboschi. 


HISTORY   OF   THE  DISCOVERY.  101 

cms,  "who  had  discovered  the  valves  of  the  veins, 
was  his  teacher ;  in  this  same  university  of  Padua 
where  were  formed  the  germs  of  all  Harvey's1 
ideas,  Realdo  Columbus,  who  discovered  the  pul- 
monary circulation,  was  but  a  short  time  before 
professor;  and  Padua  is  not  far  from  Pisa,  where 
Csesalpinus,  by  the  light  of  genius  caught  sight 
of  the  pulmonary  circulation,  and  by  a  brighter 
flash  of  the  same  divine  fire  saw  the  general  circu- 
lation. 

In  the  discovery  of  the  circulation,  the  point  of 
difficulty  was  to  unite  the  diverse  observations  suc- 
cessively made,  or  so  to  speak,  the  different  pieces, 
into  one  whole ;  the  difficulty  was  to  comprehend 
the  phenomena  and  the  whole  of  the  mechanism 
united  together ;  and  it  is  because  Harvey  was  the 
first  who  clearly  and  completely  comprehended  this 
whole  that  the  glory  has  remained  his. 

Sarpi. 

There  are  just  two  questions  relative  to  Sarpi : 
the  first  is  to  ascertain  which  of  the  two,  Fabricius 
or  he,  discovered  the  valves  of  the  veins ;  the 

(1)  Harvey  has  left  two  fundamental  works,  one  on  the 
circulation  and  the  other  on  generation:  in  the  first  he  starts 
from  the  discovery  of  the  valves  made  by  Fabricius,  and  in 
the  second,  from  the  labors  of  this  same  Fabricius  upon  the 
formation  of  the  egg  and  of  the  foetus  :  De  formato  faetu  et  De 
formations  ovi  et  pulli. 


102  CIRCULATION   OF  THE  BLOOD. 

second  is  to  learn  whether  he  understood  the  circu- 
lation. According  to  his  partisans  he  discovered 
the  veins  and  was  acquainted  with  the  circulation ; 
but  in  my  opinion,  he  neither  discovered  the  one 
nor  knew  anything  of  the  other. 

Sarpi  and  the  valves  of  the  veins. 

It  has  been  said  then  that  Sarpi  discovered  the 
valves  of  the  veins.  But  who  says  this?  It  is 
Father  Fulgence,  the  companion,  the  friend,  the 
enthusiastic  biographer  of  Father  Sarpi. 

"  Many  very  learned  men  and  very  eminent  phy- 
sicians are  living  yet,"  Fulgence  tells  us,  "  who 
know  very  well  that  the  discovery  of  the  valves 
does  not  belong  to  Fabricius  ab  Acquapendente, 
but  to  the  Father  S..  ma  dal  Padre,  who  reflecting 
on  the  gravity  of  the  blood,  came  to  think  that  it 
could  not  remain  suspended,  as  it  is  in  the  veins, 
if  it  was  not  supported  by  some  dam  or  obstacle, 
and  thereupon,  he  set  about  making  researches  and 
discovered  the  valves  and  their  use."1 

(1)  Sono  ancora  viventi  molti  eruditissimi  e  eminentissimi 
medici,  tra  quest!  Santorio  Santorio  e  Pietron  Asselineo, 
francese,  che  sanno  che  non  fu  speculatione,  ne  inventione 
dell'  Acquapendente,  ma  dal  Padre,  il  quale  considerando  la 
gravita  del  sangue,  venne  in  parere  che  non  potesse  stare 
sospeso  nelle  vene,  senza  che  vi  fosse  argine  che  lo  ritenesse, 
e  chiusure,  ch'  aprendosi'et  risserrandosi  gli  dassero  il  flussos 
e  1'equilibrio  necessario  alia  vita.  E  con  questo  natural 


HISTORY  OF  THE  DISCOVERY.  103 

Now  then  what  is  this  use  ?  According  to  Ful- 
gence,  that  is  to  say  according  to  Sarpi,  it  is  "  not 
alone  to  prevent  the  blood  by  its  weight  distending 
the  veins  and  thus  causing  varices,  but  by  modera- 
ting its  too  rapid  course  and  limiting  its  quantity 
to  prevent  it  from  destroying  the  heat  of  the  parts 
which  it  should  nourish.1" 

We  must  at  least  conclude  then,  before  quitting 
Fulgence,  that  Sarpi  did  not  understand  the  use 
of  the  valves.  The  valves  prevent  a  retrograde 
flow  of  blood,  but  present  no  obstacle  to  its  rapid 
advance,  and  it  is  scarcely  necessary  for  me  to  add 
that  the  parts  are  not  nourished  by  the  blood  of 
the  veins. 

After  Fulgence  comes  (jrassendi. 

"  I  had  no  sooner  informed  him,"  Gassendi  tells 
us  in  his  life  of  Peiresc,  "  that  William  Harvey,  an 
English  physician,  had  just  published  a  very  re- 
markable book  upon  the  continual  passage  of  the 
blood  from  the  veins  into  the  arteries  and  again 
from  the  arteries  into  the  veins  by  imperceptible 
anastomoses,  and  that  among  other  arguments  to 

giuditio  si   pose  &  tagliare  con  isquisitissima   osservatione, 

et  ritrovo-le  valvule,  e  gl'  usi  loro (Opere  del  Padre  Paolo 

deir  Ordlne  dei  Servi,  etc.,  1687:    Vita  dal  Padre,  p.  44.) 

(1)  "Perchenon  solamente  prohibiscono  ch'el  sangue  per 
la  gravita  non  dilati  le  vene,  a  guisa  di  varice,  ma  anco  a,  fine  che 
con  troppo  impeto  scorrendo,  et  in  soverchia  quantita,  non  soffo- 
chiilcalordelle parti \ che desso si debbono nutrire."  (Ibid, p 45.) 


104  CIRCULATION  OF  THE  BLOOD. 

confirm  this  passage,  he  makes  great  use  of  the 
valves  of  the  veins,  of  which  he  himself  had 
learned  something  from  Fabricius  ab  Acquapen- 
dente,  than  recollecting  that  Father  Sarpi,  Servite  > 
was  the  first  inventor,  he  would  have  the  book  and 
seek  out  the  valves  and  know  all  the  rest."1 

Thus  then  it  is  Gassendi  who  reminds  Pciresc  that 
Fabricius  has  spoken  to  him  of  the  valves  of  the 
veins,  and  he,  Peiresc,  recollects  that  it  is  Sarpi 
who  has  discovered  them.  But  who  told  Peiresc 
this?  Apparently  it  was  not  Fabricius.  Might  it 
not  have  been  Father  Fulgence  ? 

From  this  "remembrance"  of  Peiresc  let  us  pass 
to  another  point,  to  some  few  words  written  by 
the  rapid  and  prolix  pen  of  Thomas  Bartholin. 
Bartholin  was  traveling,  and  was  in  Padua  at  that 
time ;  he  wrote  from  that  place  to  Jean  Walaeus, 
professor  at  Leyden ;  of  course  there  was  much  to 
write  from  Padua.  He  related  then,  "  that  finally 
he  had  heard  from  Vesting  the  secret  of  the  dis- 

(1)  Cum  simul  monuisscm  Gulielmnm  Harvrcum,  medicum 
Anglum,  edidisse  prneclarum  libruin  de  successione  sanguinis 
ex  venis  in  arterias  et  ex  arteriis  rursus  in  venas  per  imper- 
ceptas  anastomoses,  inter  cetera  vero  argumenta  confirmasse 
illam  ex  venarum  valvulis,  de  quibus  ipse  inaudierat  aliquid 
ab  Acquapendente,  et  quaruin  inventorem  primum  Sarpium 
Servitam  meminerat,  ideo  statim  voluit  et  librum  habere, 
et  eas  valvulas  explorare  et  alia  internoscere...  (  Viri  illustrit 
Nicolai  Claudii  Fabricii  de  Peiresc  Vita  per  Petrum  Gassendum 
1641,  p.  222.) 


HISTORY   OF   THE   DISCOVERY.  105 

covery  of  the  circulation  of  the  blood,  a  secret 
which  was  not  to  be  revealed  to  anybody  ;  nulli 
revellandum;  to-wit :  that  it  was  discovered  by 
Father  Paul,  a  Venetian,  (from  whom  also  Fabri- 
cius  had  derived  the  discovery  of  the  valves  of  the 
veins)  as  he  had  seen  by  a  manuscript  of  Father 
Paul's  which  was  at  Venice,  in  the  possession  of 
his  successor  and  disciple  Father  Fulgence."1 
Always  Father  Fulgence ! 

Again,  why  should  not  this  secret  be  confided 
to  any  one  ?  Why  even  was  it  a  secret  at  all  ? 
It  certainly  was  not  a  sin  to  have  discovered  the 
circulation  of  the  blood  or  the  valves  of  the  veins. 
Finally,  why  reveal  it  if  it  ought  not  to  be  re- 
vealed ?  Above  all,  why  wait  until  after  Fabricius' 
death  before  making  this  disclosure  ?  2 

Fabricius  did  not  await  the  death  of  Sarpi  before 
saying  publicly  and  plainly  that  he  had  discovered 
the  valves.  "  What  first  astonishes,"  says  he, 
"  is  that  these  valves  have  so  long  escaped  anatom- 
ists, ancient  as  well  as  modern,  and  so  entirely 

(1)  De  circulatione  Harvejana  secretum  mihi  aperuit  Ves- 
lingius,  nulli  revelandum;  esse  nempe  inventum  Patris  Pauli, 
veneti  (a  quo  de  ostiolis  venarum  sua  habuit  Acquapendens,) 
ut  ex  ipsius  autographo  vidit,  quod  Venetiis  servat  P.  Fulgen- 

tius,  illus  discipulis  et   successor Patavio.  30  oct.  1642> 

(Thom.  Barthol.  Epist.  med.  cent,  i,  epist.  xxvi.) 

(2)  The  letter  of  Thomas  Bartholin  is  dated  in  1642,  and  the 
death  of  Fabricius  took  place  in  1619. 


106  CIRCULATION   OF   THE   BLOOD. 

escaped  them  that  no  mention  was  made  of  them, 
no  one  had  seen  them,  until  the  year  1574  when 
I  observed  them  for  the  first  time  "with  great  joy: 
summd  cum  letitid."  l 

•  When  Fabricius  wrote  this  Sarpi  was  twenty- 
two  years  old.2  He  lived  forty-nine  years  after 
Fabricius  had  made  this  declaration,  yet  neither  he 
himself,  nor  Father  Fulgence,  nor  any  other  of 
his  friends,  ever  raised  his  voice  against  Fabricius, 
but  all  of  them  as  we  have  just  seen,  kept  their 
secret  close,  and  advised  its  farther  keeping ; 
they  revealed  it,  however,  but  unhappily  not  until 
after  the  death  of  Fabricius. 

Add  to  this,  and  this  is  a  decisive  point,  that 
Fabricius  was  not  only  a  consummate  anatomist 
and  a  superior  man  of  science  but  he  was  eminently 
an  honest  man.  Harvey  called  him  a  venerable 
old  man ;  venerabilis  senex.  Says  he,  "  it  was  the 
illustrious  Jerome  Fabricius  ab  Acquapendente,  a 
most  skillful  anatomist  and  venerable  old  man,  who 
first  saw  in  the  veins  the  membranous  valves  of 
sigmoid  or  semi-lunar  shape."3 

(1)  See  page  32  ,note  2. 

(2)  He  was  born  in  1552  and  died  in  1623. 

(3)  "  Clarissimus  Hieronym.  Fab.  ab  Acquapendente,  peri- 
tissimus  anatomicus   et  venerabilis  senex,    primus  in   venis 
membraneas   valvulas  delineavit  figura,  sigmo'ides,  vel  semil- 
unares  portiunculas  tunicse  interioris  venarum,  eminentes  et 
tenuissimas...     (JSzerc.  anat.  de  motu  cordis  et  sanguinis,  cap. 
xiii.) 


HISTORY   OF  THE  DISCOVERY.  107 

The  friends  of  Sarpi  reckon  as  many  as  five 
witnesses  for  him ;  first,  Fulgence,  then  Peiresc, 
next  Vesling,  then  Thomas  Bartholin,  and  finally, 
Jean  Walseus.  But  if  I  except  the  testimony  of 
Peiresc,  of  which  I  do  not  well  see  the  origin,  all 
the  others  are  but  one.  For  it  is  Fulgence  who  in 
showing  the  manuscript  of  Sarpi  to  Vesling  con- 
fides to  him  the  secret ;  it  is  Vesling  who  trans- 
mitted this  secret  to  Thomas  Bartholin,  and  it  is 
Bartholin  who  commuicates  it  to  Jean  Walseus. 

There  remain  then  two  distinct  pieces  of  evi- 
dence— that  of  Peiresc  and  that  of  Fulgence. 

To  these  two  I  oppose  two  others;  in  the  first 
place,  the  testimony  of  Harvey  which  I  have  just 
cited,  a  man  more  competent  to  give  evidence  upon 
the  question  at  issue  than  Peiresc  or  Fulgence, 
and  in  the  second  place  that  of  Gaspard  Bauhin, 
the  immortal  author  of  Pinax,  like  Harvey,  a 
pupil  of  Fabricius  :  in  his  Traite  d'anatomic,  pub- 
lished in  1592,  he  thus  expresses  himself;  "  we 
find  no  one  who  has  made  mention  of  these  valves 
before  the  celebrated  Fabricius  ab  Acquapendente, 
our  master  in  anatomy,  who  eighteen  years  ago, 
demonstrated  them  for  the  first  time  in  the  amphi- 
theatre of  Padua.1 

(1)  Neminem  legimus  qui  earum  fecerit  mentionem  ante  cl. 
anatomicum  Hieronymum  Fabricium  ab  Acquapendente,  pata- 
vinum,  anatomicum  proeceptoiem  nostrum,  qui  ante  annosocto- 
decim  eas  in  patavino  theatro  demonstravit,  et  ipsimet  demon- 
strari  vidimus  ab  eodem  ante  annos  quatuordecim." — Anat.  lib.  ii. 

10 


108  CIRCULATION   OF   THE   BLOOD. 

Morgagni,  the  most  learned  historian  and  at  the 
same  time  the  most  careful  critic  anatomy  has  ever 
had,  Morgagni  knew,  examined  and  weighed  all 
this  pretended  testimony  which  is  advanced,  and 
the  whole  of  it  has  not  affected  his  judgment.  He 
concluded,  as  I  have  concluded,  that  the  discovery 
of  the  valves  of  the  veins  was  not  made  by  Sarpi 
but  by  Fabricius.1 

Sarpi  and  the  circulation  of  the  blood. 

Those  who  admit  these  evidences  which  I  have 
been  combatting,  so  long  as  they  relate  to  Fabri- 
cius, and  believe  themselves  able  to  reject  them 
when  they  concern  Harvey,  are  laboring  under  a 
singular  delusion.  The  witnesses  cannot  be  sepa- 
rated. 

"The  discovery  of  the  circulation,"  says  Vesling, 
"is  an  invention  of  Father  Paul's,  from  whom  Fa- 
bricius also  derived  the  existence  of  the  valves." 

"In  this  century,"  says  Jean  Walaeus,  "the  in- 
comparable Paul,  Servite,  became  acquainted  with 
the  valves  of  the  veins,  afterward  publicly  demon- 
strated by  the  great  anatomist  Fabricius,  and  from 
their  disposition  he  inferred  the  movement  of  the 
blood.  Instructed  by  this  Servite,  ab  hoc  Servitd 
edoctus,  the  learned  William  Harvey  studied  this 

(1)  See  the  fifteenth  of  the  Letters  of  Morgagni  upon 
Valsalva. — (Epist.  anat.  duodeviginti  ad  script,  pertinent  Val- 
talvce.) 


HISTORY   OF   THE  DISCOVERY.  109 

movement  farther  and  published  it  in  his  own 
name."1 

How  can  we  separate  Harvey  from  Fabricius? 
And  note  that  while  this  was  written  Harvey  still 
lived,  and  note  well,  too,  that  to  his  honor  he  had 
the  good  sense  not  to  take  notice  of  it.  As  we 
have  seen  before,  Riolan  was  the  only  one  of  his 
adversaries  to  whom  he  responded. 

When  the  enemies  of  Harvey  became  convinced 
that  he  would  not  reply  to  them,  they  ceased  their 
attacks ;  they  became  tired  of  a  fruitless  warfare. 
And  this  same  Thomas  Bartholin,  who,  in  his  let- 
ter to  Jean  Walseus,  dated  in  1642,  revealed  the 
famous  secret,  wrote  some  years  after,  in  1673,  as 
follows : 

"In  the  last  century  Csesalpinus  divined  some- 
thing of  the  circulation ;  but  the  honor  of  the  first 
discovery,  laus  primce  inventionis,  is  due  to  Har- 
vey, an  Englishman.  It  is  true  that  Father  Ful- 
gence  found  something  relating  to  it  in  the  papers 

(1)  "Hoc  seculo  denuo  vir  incomparabilis  Paulus,  Servita, 
venetus,  valvularum  in  venis  fabricam  observavit  accuratius, 
quam  magnus  anatomicus  Fabricius  ab  Acquapendente  postei 
edidit,  et  ex  ea  valvularum  constitutione  aliisque  experimen- 
tis  hunc  sanguinis  moturn  deduxit,  egrioque  scripto  asseruit, 

quod  etiamnum  intelligo  apud  venetos  asservari Ab 

hoc  Servita  edoctus  vir  doctissimus  Gulielmus  Harvejus  san- 
guinus  hunc  motum  accuratius  indagavit,  inventis  auxit,  pro- 
bavit  firmius,  et  suo  divulgavit  nomine." — (De  motu  chi/li  et 
isj  etc.) 


110  CIRCULATION   OP  THE  BLOOD. 

of  Paul  Sarpi,  which  has  given  birth  to  the  conjec- 
ture that  Sarpi  opened  the  way  for  Harvey ;  the 
fact  simply  is  that  Harvey,  as  I  have  learned  from 
his  friends,  was  connected  with  Sarpi  and  commu- 
nicated to  him  his  thoughts  concerning  the  move- 
ment of  the  blood,  and  that  the  latter  took  and 
preserved  notes  of  the  subject  in  his  papers,  accord- 
ing to  his  custom.  Everybody  recognizes  Harvey 
as  the  author  of  the  discovery."1 

Here  then  the  tune  is  changed.  In  the  letter  of 
Thomas  Bartholin  it  is  from  Sarpi  that  Harvey  ob- 
tained the  discovery ;  and  in  the  book  of  this  same 
Bartholin  it  is  from  Harvey  that  Sarpi  learned 
what  he  knew  of  it.  After  that  rely  upon  secrets 
and  confidential  relations  for  writing  history ! 

I  come  now  to  the  new  document  produced  by 
M.  Bianchi-Giovini:  it  is  one  of  Sarpi's  letters. 
Sarpi  was  a  man  of  prodigious  capacity;  he  had 

(1)  "Priori  seculo  Cassalpinus  aliquid  de  e&  (de  circula- 

tione)  divinavit,    sed  clarius   nostro    seculo   innotuit 

Harvejo,  anglo,  cui  primae  inventionis,  promulgationis  et  per 
varia  argumenta  et  experimenta  probationis,  prima  laus  me- 
rit^ debetur  Quamquam  P.  Fulgentius  in  schedis  Pauli 

Sarpae,  veneti,  aliquid  hac  de  re  invenerit,  unde  suspicandi 
orta  est  occasio  Sarpam  Harvejo  viam  monstrasse ;  sed,  sicut 
ab  amicis  Harveji  accepi,  familiaris  hie  illi  fuit,  unde  cum 
has  de  sanguinis  motu  cogitationes  illi  communicasset,  Sarpa 
in  schedis  retulit  more  suo,  posterisque  ansam  dubitandi  sub- 
ministravit.  At  Harvejo  omnes  applaudunt,  circulationis  auc- 
tori." — (Tbomaj  Bartholini,  Anatome,  etc.;  Libell,  de  venis : 
Leyde,  1673.) 


HISTORY   OF  THE  DISCOVERY.  Ill 

that  perspicacity  which  divines  all  things ;  he  was 
capable  of  discovering  all  things.  But  this  is  not 
a  reason  that  he  discovered  anything,  and  we  can 
not  therefore  agree  with  the  decision  of  Ful- 
gence.1 

The  following  is  the  letter,  or  rather  the  frag- 
ment of  a  letter,  for  it  is  but  a  fragment,  but  one 
which  is  striking  from  the  marks  it  presents  of 
superior  penetration:  "As  to  your  exhortations, 
I  should  say  to  you  that  I  am  no  longer,  as  for- 
merly, in  a  position  which  permits  me  to  charm 
my  leisure  hours  in  making  anatomical  observa- 
tions upon  lambs,  goats,  cows  and  other  animals : 
could  I  do  so,  I  should  be  at  this  time  more  desi- 
rous than  ever  of  repeating  some  of  them,  on  ac- 
count of  the  noble  present  you  have  made  me  of 
the  great  and  very  useful  work  of  the  illustrious 
Vesalius.  There  is  really  a  great  analogy  between 
the  things  already  remarked  and  noted  by  me  in 
regard  to  the  movement  of  the  blood  in  the  animal 
body,  and  to  the  structure  as  well  as  the  use  of  the 
valves,  and  what  I  find  with  pleasure  indicated, 
although  less  clearly,  in  Book  vii.,  chap.  xix.  of 

(1)  "  Eti  Sarpius  fuit  ingenii  vi,  eo  studio,  ea,  industrial,  so- 
lertia  sagacitate,  ut  tametsi  in  omnibus  propemodum  scientiis 
atque  artibug,  non  ea  omnia  quno  ipsi  in  vita  ista  (the  Life  of 
Sarpi  by  Fulgence)  tribuuntur  (nihil  autem  fere  non  tribui- 

tur)  primus  deprehendere    posset." — (Morgagni:  xv. 

Lettre  sur  Valsalva.) 


112  CIRCULATION   OF   THE  BLOOD. 

this  work.  It  is  to  be  inferred  from  what  appears 
there,  that  by  the  insufflation  of  fresh  air  into  the 
trachea  of  the  dying,  or  of  those  in  whom  the  vital 
functions  appear  to  have  ceased,  we  can  succeed  in 
restoring  to  their  blood  the  movement  it  has  lost 
and  in  prolonging  life  some  time.  If  it  is  thus, 
and  we  can  scarcely  doubt  it  after  the  experiments 
of  this  great  anatomist,  I  am  more  than  ever  con- 
firmed in  the  opinion  that  the  air  which  we  respire 
contains  a  principle  or  agent  capable  of  vivifying 
the  sanguineous  fluid,  and  of  reestablishing  its  move- 
ment in  those  who  have  been  surprised  by  mortal 
faintings  or  asphyxiated  by  the  pernicious  vapors 

which   exhale  from   tombs, an  agent,  in  a 

word,  such  as  is  alluded  to  in  the  Scriptures,  in 
these  words :  anima  omnis  carnis  (that  is  to  say, 
of  every  living  thing)  in  sanguine  est,  of  which  also 
many  ancient  philosophers  have  spoken,  and  nearer 
our  own  times,  Marsile  Ficin,  Pic  de  la  Mirandole, 
etc.,  etc." 

Thus  writes  Sarpi !  He  knew  of  the  existence 
of  the  valves ;  he  meditated  upon  the  movement  of 
the  blood;  from  some  experiments  of  Vesalius  upon 
the  insufflation  of  air  into  the  trachea  to  maintain 
the  movement  of  the  heart  he  concluded  the  pres- 
ence in  the  air  of  a  principle  vivifying,  active,  pen- 
etrating; a  vital  air;  our  oxygen:  he  concludes 
and  seems  to  predict,  for  all  this  is  original  and 


HISTORY  OF  THE  DISCOVERY.  113 

unpremeditated  with  him,1  he  predicts  the  part 
which  this  agent,  still  unknown,  will  play  in  ani- 
mating the  movements  of  the  heart  when  about 
ceasing,  and  in  restoring  the  asphyxiated  to  life. 
What  sagacity,  what  perspicuity,  what  penetration, 
and  what  power  has  the  human  mind  in  some  of 
the  chosen  of  God ! 

If  in  these  few  lines  Sarpi  had  said  to  us :  "I  dis- 
covered the  valves,"  in  my  estimation  all  would  be 
settled;  I  would  proclaim  Sarpi  the  author  of  the 
discovery  of  the  valves ;  genius  has  always  a  right 
to  be  believed;  but  Sarpi  contents  himself  with 
saying  that  he  knew  of  them,  and  that  he  had  at 
times  written  some  notes  upon  their  structure  and 
their  use;  and  farther,  the  fragment  of  the  letter 
in  which  he  speaks  of  this  is  evidently  posterior  to 
the  publication  of  the  discovery  of  Fabricius. 

The  fragment  is  without  date;  but  to  me  it 
appears  easy  to  see  that  it  could  not  have  been 

(1)  In  contrast  with  the  studies  of  Vesalius  which  were 
strictly  experimental.  In  order  to  examine  the  movements 
of  the  heart  Vesalius  opened  the  chest,  and  when  he  saw  life 
about  to  be  extinguished  he  restored  the  animal  and  kept  it 

alive  by  artificial  respiration  "Ut  vero  vita  animali 

quodammodo  restituatur,  foramen  in  asperao  arterise  caudice 
tentandum  est,  cui  canalis  ex  calamo  aut  arundine  indetur, 
isque  inflabitur,  ut  pulmo  assurgat,  ipsumque  animal  quodam- 
modo aerem  ducat:  levi  cnim  inflatu  in  vivo  hoc  animali  pul- 
mo tantum  quanta  thoracis  erat  cavitas  intumet,  corque  vires 
denuo  assumit,  et  motus  ipsus  differentia  pulchre  evariat." — 
(  Vesalii,  De  corp.  hum.  fair.,  lib.  vii.,  ch.  xix.) 


114  CIRCULATION   OF  THE   BLOOD. 

•written  before  the  demonstration  of  the  valves  by 
.Fabricius,  and  this  point  will  suffice  for  the  present. 
"I  am  no  longer,  as  formerly,  in  a  position,"  etc. 
says  Sarpi.  Now  if  this  formerly  be  placed  at 
four  or  five  years,  and  it  is  difficult  to  estimate  it 
at  less,  Sarpi,  who  was  only  twenty-two  years  old 
in  1574  when  Fabricius  publicly  demonstrated  the 
valves,  could  not  have  been  more  than  seventeen 
or  eighteen  at  the  time  when  he  is  said  to  have 
discovered  them,  an  age  at  which  little  thought  is 
spent  on  the  profound  mechanism  of  the  animal 
body,  or  on  one  of  the  most  hidden  structures  of 
the  organism.  The  fact  is  little  probable.1  Sarpi 
was  acquainted  with  the  existence  of  the  valves, 
but  he  did  not  discover  them. 

(1)  But,  it  may  be  said,  Fabricius  himself  quotes  Sarpi  in 
another  place  and  with  great  praise.  The  case  is  very  differ- 
ent; firstly,  the  observation  for  which  Fabricius  quotes  Sarpi 
was  not  made  until  much  later;  secondly,  it  was  made  at  the 
suggestion  of  Fabricius;  thirdly,  it  was  not  a  quotation  con- 
cerning profound  anatomy  or  hidden  stauctures;  it  was  sim- 
ply in  regard  to  the  different  action  of  the  iris  under  a  strong 
and  under  a  feeble  light "Re  igitur  cum  amico  quo- 
dam  nostro  communicata  ille  tandem  forte  id  observavit,  scili- 
cet nonmodo  in  cato,  sed  in  homine  et  quocumque  animali, 
foramen  uvese  in  majori  contrahi  luce,  in  minor!  dilatari. 
Quod  arcanum  observatum  est,  et  mihi  significatum  a  Rev. 
Patre  Magistro  Paulo  veneto,  Ordinis  ut  appellant  Servorum 
Theologo,  philosophoque  insigni,  sed  mathematicarum  dis- 
ciplinarum  pracipueque  optices,  maxim<;  studioso,  quern  hoc 

loco  honoris  gratia  nomino  "  (De  ocuh,  etc.,  pars  111, 

cap.  vi. 


HISTORY   OF  THE  DISCOVERY.  115 

Farther,  in  regard  to  the  circulation ;  of  that  he 
knew  nothing  at  all. 

"There  is  a  grand  analogy,"  says  he,  "between 
the  things  observed  and  noted  by  me  as  to  the 
movement  of  the  blood  and  the  use  of  the  valves, 
and  what  I  find  indicated,  although  less  clearly,  in 
Vesalius."  But  Vesalius  knew  nothing  of  the 
valves,  and  of  the  movement  of  the  blood  only 
that  which  takes  place  in  the  arteries,1  and  he  was 
completely  deceived  as  to  the  course  of  the  blood 
in  the  veins:  he  says,  "the  blood  is  carried  into 
the  whole  body  by  the  veins."2  He  should  have 
said  just  the  reverse — it  is  carried  into  the  differ- 
ent parts  of  the  body  by  the  arteries  and  brought 
back  from  them  by  the  veins.  If  Sarpi  understood 
the  true  course  of  the  blood,  how  is  it  that  he  did 
not  perceive  this  error  of  Vesalius?  And  if  he  did 
perceive  it  how  could  he  say  that  there  was  a  great 

(1)  Galen   had   plainly  proved   that  the  arteries   contain 
blood  as  we  have  already  shown ;  but  this  had  been  forgotten 
and  it  was  universally  believed  in  the  schools  that  the  arteries 
only  contained  vital  spirits.     Vesalius  again  proved  that  the 

arteries  contain  blood:  "  atque  ita  observatur  in  arte- 

riis  sanguinem  natura  contineri,  si  quando  arteriam  in  vivis 
aperimus." — (De  corp.  hum.fabr.,  p.  568.) 

(2)  "  Ceterum  in  venarum  usu  inquirendo,  vix  quoque  vivo- 
rum  sectione  opus  est:  quum  in  mortuis  affatim  discamus  eas 
sanguinem  per  universum  corpus  deferre,  et  partem  aliquam 
non  nutriri  in  qua  insignis  vena  in  vulneribus  prsescinditur." 
—(Ibid.) 


116  CIRCULATION    OF  TIIE  BLOOD. 

analogy  between  the  ideas  of  Vesalius  and  his  own? 
Us  ideas  were  no  more  advanced  nor  any  more  cor- 
rect than  those  of  Vesalius. 

There  is  just  cause  for  surprise  here.  For  while 
Sarpi  wrote  at  Padua  these  uncertain  lines  in  re- 
gard to  the  circulation,  Caesalpinus  wrote  at  Pisa 
this  sentence  so  precise  and  so  clear :  "  The  blood 
conducted  to  the  heart  by  the  veins  receives  there 
its  last  perfection,  and  this  perfection  acquired  it 
is  carried  by  the  arteries  to  the  whole  body."1 

Once  again,  then,  could  the  circulation  be  better 
understood  and  defined?  The  true  predecessor  of 
Harvey  was  not  Sarpi  but  Csesalpinus,  and  there 
is  nothing  to  conceal  about  it;  the  secret  may  be 
revealed  to  the  whole  world. 

Harvey  and  the  true  use  of  the  valves. 

Fabricius  did  not  see  the  use  of  the  valves.  He 
believed  that  they  only  served  to  prevent  the  too 
great  distension  of  the  thin  coats  of  the  veins : 2  it 

(1)  "In  animalibus  videmus  alimentum  per  venas  duci  ad 
cor  tanquam  ad  officinam  caloris  insiti,  et,  adepta  inibi  ultima 
perl'ectione,  per  arterias  in  universum  corpus  distribui." — 
( De  plantis,  lib.  i.,  cap.  ii.,  p.  3,  Florence,  1583.) 

(2)   "Dicere  procul  dubio  tuto  possumus  ad  prohi- 

bendam  quoque  venaruin  distensionem  fuisse  ostiola  a  Summo 
Opifice  fabrefacta :    distendi  autem  ac  dilatari  facile  potuis- 
sent  venae,  cum  ex  membranosa  substantia  eiique  simplici  ac 
tenui  sint  conflatoe "    (Fabr.  ab  Acquap:  De  venarum 


HISTORY   OF  THE  DISCOVERT.  117 

is  for  this  reason,  he  says,  that  the  arteries,  having 
very  thick  coats,  do  not  have  valves.1 

Harvey  was  perfectly  right,  then,  when  he  said 
that  nobody  before  him,  Harvey,  had  known  the 
the  use  of  the  valves?  Upon  this  point  it  is  neces- 
sary to  read  and  re-read  all  his  thirteenth  chapter, 
which  is  the  chapter  of  his  genius.  Fabricius,  who 
believed  that  the  blood  ran  from  the  heart  to  the 
extremities  in  the  veins,  concluded  that  the  use  of 
the  valves  was  to  moderate  its  current,  and  prevent 
its  pouring  into  the  inferior  veins,  accumulating 
there,  distending  them,  etc.,  etc. 

You  do  not  see  all  the  import  of  your  discovery, 
Harvey  says  to  him;  you  believe  that  the  valves 
limit  themselves  to  moderating  the  course  of  the 

(1)  "  Arteriis  autem  ostiola  non  fuere  necessaria,  neque  ad 
distensionem  prohibendam  propter  tunicae  crassitiem  ac  robur 
"  (Ibid.) 

(2)  "  Harum  valvularum  usum  inventor  non  estmssecutus, 
neque  alii,  qui  dixerunt,  ne  pondere  deorsum  sanguis  in  infe- 
riora  subito  ruat.     Sunt  namque  in  jugularibus  deorsum  spec- 
tantes,  et  sanguinem  sursum  prohibentes  ferri:  nam  ubique 

spectant  a  radicibus  venarum  versus  cordis  locum  " 

(Exercit.  anatom.  de  mortu  cordis,  etc.  cap.  xiii.)     "  If  you  at- 
tempt," says  Fabricius,  "  to  force   the  blood  downward  you 
will  plainly  see  it  arrested  in  its  course  by  the  veins,  and  by 
no  other  means  was  I  conducted  to  their  discovery:    Si  enim 
premere,  aut  deorsum  fricando  adigere  sanguinem  per  venas 
tentes,  cursum  istius  ab  ipsis  ostiolis  intercipi,  remorarique 
aperte  videbis:  neque  enim  aliter  ego  in  hujusmodi  notitiam 
sum  deductus." — (De  venarum  ostiolis.) 


118  CIRCULATION   OF  THE  BLOOD. 

blood  ;  they  do  much  more,  they'oppose  themselves 
completely  to  any  flow  in  the  direction  you  sup- 
pose, and  compel  it  to  pursue  an  opposite  course. 
Remark,  I  pray  you,  that  they  are  all  directed  to- 
ward the  heart;  they  constrain  the  blood,  then,  to 
flow  always  toward  the  heart,1  to  turn  toward  itself, 
to  return  to  the  point  from  which  it  set  out ;  to 
flow  back  by  the  veins  to  the  heart  from  which  it 
came  by  the  arteries. 

That  is  the  circulation,  Fabricius,  and  it  is  the 
valves  that  demonstrate  it. 

Harvey  and  his  predecessors. 

The  predecessors  of  Harvey  are  Fabricius,  who 
discovered  the  valves,  and  Coesalpinus,  who  so  well 
described  the  general  circulation;2  this  same  CSG- 
salpinus,  who  not  less  clearly  described  the  pul- 
monary circulation;3  and  Realdo  Columbus,  who 

(1)  " Adeo  ut  venae  patentes  et  apertse  sint  regre- 

dienti  sanguini  ad  cor,  progredienti  vero  a  corde  omnino  oc- 
clusas." — (Exercit.  anal,  de  morlu.  cordis,  etc.,  cap.  xii.) 

(2)  See  page  29  for  the  proof  of  his  having  been  the  first  to 
call  attention  to  the  swelling  of  the  veins  below  a  ligature. 

(3)  "Idcirco  pulmo  per  venam  arteriis  similem  ex  dextro 
cordis  ventriculo  fervidum  hauriens  sanguinem,  eumque  per 
anastomosim  arteriaj  venali  reddens,  qua  in  sinistrum  cordis 
ventriculum  tendit,  transmisso  interim  aere  frigido  per  as- 
perse arteriac  canales,  qui  juxti,  arteriam  venalem  protendun- 
tur,  non  tamen  osculis  communicantes,  ut  putavit  Galenus, 
solo   tactu  temporal.     Iliac  sauguinis  circulalioni  ex   dextro 


HISTORY  OF   THE   DISCOVERY.  119 

saw  the  pulmonary  circulation  before  Csesalpinus, 
and  Servetus  who  saw  it  before  Columbus. 

Nemesius,  bishop  of  Emesa. 

I  limit  myself  here  to  the  consideration  of  two 
or  three  points  already  developed  in  the  preceding 
chapters. 

It  is  certain  that  Servetus  discovered  the  pul- 
monary circulation;  but  it  is  equally  certain  that 
the  absurd  book  in  which  this  beautiful  discovery 
was  published,  was  burned  almost  as  soon  as  it  was 
printed.  Servetus  did  not  influence  any  of  his 
successors. 

In  the  order  of  dates,  then,  Columbus  is  the  first ; 
then  comes  Csesalpinus,  then  Fabricius  and  then 
Harvey. 

It  has  been  said  that  Servetus  might  have  de- 
rived some  assistance  from  Nemesius,  bishop  of 
Emesa.1  It  is  a  mistake.  Servetus  did  not  influ- 
ence any  one,  nor  did  any  one  influence  him. 

cordis  ventriculo  per  pulmones  in  sinistrum  ejusdem  ventri- 
culum  optime  respondent  ea  quoe  ex  dissectione  apparent. 
Nam  duo  sunt  vasa  in  dextrum  ventriculum  desinentia,  duo 
etiam  in  sinistrum:  duorum  autem  unum  intromittit  tantum, 
alteruin  educit,  membranis  eo  ingenio  constitutis." — (Qucest. 
perpatetica,  lib.  v.,  cap.  iv.) 

(1)  " These  views  he  might  possibly  have  borrowed 

from  a  work  of  Nemesius,  entitled  De  natura  hominis  

This  bishop  explains  the  phenomena  of  the  circulation  of  the 
blood  like  Servetus." — (Biog.  univ.  art.  Scrvet.) 


120  CIRCULATION   OF  THE  BLOOD. 

Nemesius  did  not  'say  a  word  upon  the  pulmo- 
nary circulation,  so  clearly  explained  by  Servetus; 
he  spoke  of  the  pulse,  of  animal  heat,  of  the  vital 
spirits,  and  wrote  of  all  of  them  as  Galen  wrote. 
He  followed  Galen  in  everything.1  The  chief  merit 

(1)  "Pulsuum  motus,  qui  vitalis  facultas  dicitur,  initium 
habet  a  corde,  et  maxime  a  sinistro  ejus  ventriculo,  qui  spira- 
bilis  appellatur,  et  innatum  vitalemque  calorem  omni  parti 
corporis  per  arterias,  ut  jecur  alimentum  per  venas,  impertit. 

Nam  spiritus  vitalis  ab  eo  per  arterias  in  totum  corpus 

dispergitur.  Plerumque  autem  inter  se  hsec  tria  simul  fin- 
duntur:  vena,  arteria,  nervus,  e  tribus  initiis  quoe  animal 
gubernant  profecta.  E  cerebro,  principle  movendi  et  sen- 
tkndi,  nervus.  E  jecore,  principle  sanguinis  et  alentis  facul- 
tatis,  vena,  vas  sanguinis.  E  corde,  principio  vitalis  faculta- 
tis,  arteria,  vas  spiritus.  Cum  autem  haac  coeunt,  mutuis  inter 
se  commodis  fruuntur.  Vena  enim  pastum  suppeditat  nervis 
et  arterisD.  Arteria  venas  calorem  naturalem  et  spiritum 
vitalem  impertit.  Unde  neque  arteria  inveniri  potest  sine 
tenui  sanguine,  neque  vena  sine  spiritu,  qui  ad  vaporis  natu- 
ram  accedat.  Diducitur  autem  vehementer,  et  contrahitur 
arteria,  harmonia  quadam,  et  ratione,  initio  motus  a  corde 
sumpto.  Sed  dum  diducitur,  a  proximis  vcnis  vi  trahit  tenuem 
sanguinem,  cujus  respiratio  fit  alimentum  spiritui  vitali. 
Dum  autem  contrahitur,  quod  in  se  fuliginosi  est  per  totum 
corpus  et  occulta  foramina  exhaurit,  quomodo  cor,  per  os,  et 
nares,  quidquid  fuliginosi  est,  expirando  sursum  expellit." 
This  is  all  that  Nemesius  has  said.  This  pulse,  -which  derives 
its  power  from  the  heart — this  vital  heat,  -which  has  its  origin 
in  the  left  ventricle — these  arteries  which  carry  that  vital  heat 
throughout  the  body — these  veins  which  distribute  the  aliment, 
taking  it  always  from  the  liver — this  tripod  of  life,  the  brain, 
the  heart  and  the  liver, — all  this  is  derived  from  Galen,  as  we 
have  already  shown.  One  or  two  lines  seem  to  point  to  a 


HISTORY   OF   THE   DISCOVERY.  121 

of  Servetus  is  that  he  did  not  follow  Galen  but 
contradicted  him,  that  he  saw  differently  from  Ga- 
len and  saw  well.  "If  any  one  will  compare,"  (he 
says  with  confidence,)  "these  things  with  what 
Galen  has  written  in  Books  vi.  and  vii.  of  his 
Usage  of  Parts,  he  will  comprehend  the  truth 
which  Galen  did  not  perceive." 

It  is  not  worth  while  to  deprive  a  man  who  has 
had  the  misfortune  to  be  burned,  and  to  be  burned 
for  an  absurd  book,  of  the  signal  honor  of  having 
been  the  first  to  depart  from  Galen,  to  think  for 
himself,  and  to  originate  a  discovery  which  was, 
it  is  true,  but  an  incomplete  view,  yet  an  incom- 
plete view  of  phenomena  the  entire  comprehension 
of  which  has  sufficed  to  immortalize  the  name  of 
Harvey. 

communication  between  the  veins  and  the  arteries,  <(Sed 
dum  diducitur  (arteria)  a  proximis  venis  vi  trahit  sanguinem 
Unde  neque  arteria  inveniri  potest  sine  tenui  san- 
guine, neque  vena  sine  spiritu  "  But  is  this  a  com- 
prehensible mechanism?  Putting  aside,  too,  the  liver  dis- 
tributing aliment  to  all  parts  by  the  veins:  "  Jecur  alimen- 
tum  per  venas  impertit,  etc.,  etc.1' 


V. 

SERVETUS    AND    THE    FORMATION   OF    THE    SPIRITS. 

Servetus  discovered  the  pulmonary  circulation. 
The  fact  is  clear.  I  have  already  quoted  the  beau- 
tiful, the  immortal  passage  in  which  he  has  described 
it  much  better  than  was  done  several  years  after 
him  by  Columbus  and  Csesalpinus.  Leibnitz  justly 
alludes  to  Csesalpinus  in  these  words :  "  Andrew 
Cacsalpinus,  physician,  an  author  of  merit,  and 
who  approached  nearest  to  the  discovery  of  the 
circulation  of  the  blood  after  Michael  Servetus." 

There  are  two  things  here  which  surprise  us. 
How  Servetus,  elsewhere  so  confused,  could  be  so 
admirably  lucid  in  a  few  pages.  And,  how  a  dis- 
covery in  physiology,  in  pure  and  profound  phys- 
iology, should  be  found  in  a  book  having  for  its 
title  "  The  Restitution  of  Christianity."1 

I  had  for  a  long  time  desired  to  enlighten  myself 
upon  the  latter  point.  The  kindness  of  my  friend 
and  learned  confrere  of  the  Institute,  M.  Magnin,2 
finally  furnished  me  the  opportunity.  I  have  seen, 
I  have  touched  the  book  of  Servetus.  A  copy  of 

(1)  For  the  entire  title  of  this  work,  see  note  1,  page  22. 

(2)  One  of  the  conservators  of  the  Imperial  Library. 


HISTORY   OF  THE  DISCOVERY.  123 

this  famous  work  is  carefully  preserved  in  our 
library,  and  to  complete  all,  this  copy,  the  only 
one  perhaps  now  in  existence,  belonged  to  Colla- 
don,  one  of  the  accusers  raised  up  by  the  pitiless 
Calvin  against  the  unfortunate  Servetus.  It  for- 
merly belonged  to  the  English  physician,  Richard 
Mead,  celebrated  for  his  treatise  on  poisons. 
Mead  gave  it  to  de  Boze.  It  was  afterwards  pur- 
chased by  the  Royal  Library  at  a  very  high  price. 
In  it  Colladon  has  underscored  the  passages  upon 
which  he  accused  Servetus.  Finally,  and  as  a  last 
mark  of  undeniable  authority,  several  pages  of  this 
unlucky  volume  are  scorched  and  blackened  by 
fire.  It  was  not  saved  from  the  pile  where  author 
and  work  were  burned  together  until  after  the 
conflagration  had  commenced ! 

Let  us  turn  aside  from  these  frightful  souvenirs. 
We  are  only  occupied  here,  thank  God,  with  phys- 
iology. 

I  must  commence  by  informing  those  who  are 
carried  away  by  their  zeal  for  Harvey,  and  go 
so  far  as  to  suggest  that  the  passage  concerning 
the  pulmonary  circulation  must  have  been  intercal- 
ated, that  they  are  mistaken.  There  is  no  inter- 
calation, no  interpolation,  no  trickery.  The  passage 
belongs  entirely  to  Servetus,  and  nothing  remains 
but  to  submit.  A  long  time  before  Harvey  there 
was  a  man  of  genius  occupied  with  this  great  sub- 
11 


124:  CIRCULATION  OF  THE  BLOOD. 

ject  of  the  circulation  of  the  blood,  and  that  man 
was  Servetus. 

But  how  has  Servetus  managed  to  thrust  a  de- 
scription of  the  pulmonary  circulation  into  a  work 
on  the  Restitution  of  Christianity  ? 

When  we  cast  a  glance  over  the  writings  of 
Servetus,  which  I  aver  I  have  not  done  until  now, 
we  soon  perceive  what  part  he  took  in  theology ; 
he  attached  himself  singly  and  obstinately  to  the 
literal  sense.  He  sought  every  where  for  the 
literal  meaning ;  he  accused  everybody,  and  above 
all  Calvin,  of  not  understanding  it ;  he  accumula- 
ted quotations  to  prove  that  he  alone  compre- 
hended it. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  leave  the  subject  before 
us  to  find  an  example.  The  Scriptures  say  that 
the  soul  is  in  the  blood,  that  the  soul  is  the  blood 
itself;  anima  est  in  sanguine;  anima  ipsa  cst 
sanguis. 

.Since  the  soul  is  in  the  blood,  says  Servetus,  to 
know  how  the  soul  is  formed  it  is  necessary  to 
know  how  the  blood  is  formed,  and  to  learn  this  we 
must  see  how  it  moves;  and  it  is  thus  that  in 
writing  on  the  restitution  of  Christianity  he  is  con- 
ducted to  the  formation  of  the  soul,  and  from  the 
formation  of  the  soul  to  that  of  the  blood,  and 
from  this  to  the  pulmonary  circulation. 

But  this  is  not  all.  From  this  same  blood, 
which  furnishes  the  soul,  the  spirits  are  also 


HISTORY   OF  THE   DISCOVERY.  125 

formed.  Servetus  explains  successively  the  for- 
mation of  the  blood,  of  the  spirits,  and  of  the  soul, 
and  from  all  this  there  results  a  philosophy  half  of 
which  is  theological,  half  physiological,  extremely 
singular  from  beginning  to  end,  and  which  he  calls 
divine. 

"In  order  that  you  may  have,  dear  reader,"  he 
says,  "  a  complete  explanation  of  the  soul  and  the 
spirits,  I  will  add  here  a  divine  philosophy  which 
you  will  easily  understand,  if  you  have  applied 
yourself  to  anatomy."1 

He  then  commences  to  explain  the  formation  of 
the  spirits.  We  have  already  seen  what  were  Galen's 
theories  of  their  formation.  Servetus  did  not  cite 
Galen  but  he  copied  him.  He  quoted  and  criti- 
cised a  certain  Aphrodisaeus,  a  physician  who  lived 
at  the  commencement  of  the  sixteenth  century. 
Aphrodisaeus,  he  says,  reckons  three  kinds  of 
spirits,  the  natural,  the  vital  and  the  animal;  but 
there  are  not  three  kinds,  there  are  only  two,  the 
vital  and  animal.2  The  natural  are  the  same  as 

(1)  "Ut  vero   totam   animse  et  spiritus  rat ionem  habeas, 
lector,    divinam   hie    philosophiam    adjungam,  quam    facile 
intelliges,  si  in  anatome  fueris  exercitatus." 

(2)  "Tres  spiritus  vocat  Aphrodisrcus,  naturalis,  vitalis  efc 

animalis Vere   non   sunt  tres,   sed  duo  spiritus   dis- 

tincti." 


126  CIRCULATION   OF   THE   BLOOD. 

the  vital.  The  vital  spirits  pass  from  the  arteries 
into  the  veins  and  are  there  called  natural.1 

There  are  thus  three  principles :  the  blood,  the 
seat  of  which  is  the  liver  and  the  veins  of  the  body, 
the  vital  spirits,  which  are  in  the  heart  and  arteries, 
and  the  animal  spirits,  situated  in  the  brain  and  in 
the  nerves.2 

It  is  from  the  blood  contained  in  the  liver  that 
the  soul  draws  its  first  material  by  an  admirable 
elaboration;3  and  for  this  reason  the  soul  is  said 
to  be  in  the  blood,  to  be  the  blood  itself,  that  is  to 
say,  the  spirit  of  the  blood* 

But  we  must  learn  first  how  the  vital  spirits  are 
formed.  They  are  formed  by  the  mixture  of  air, 
drawn  in  by  respiration,  with  the  blood  which  the 
right  ventricle  sends  to  the  left,  a  mixture  which 

(1)  "Vitalis  est  spiritus  qui  per  anastomoses  ab  arteriis 
communicatur  venis,  in  quibus  dicitur  naturalis." 

(2)  Primus  ergo  est  sanguinis,   cujus  sedes  est  in  hepate 
et  corporis  venis.     Secundus  est  spiritus  vitalis,  cujus  sedes 
est  in  corde  et  corporis  arteriis.     Tertius  est  spiritus  animalis, 
cujus  sedes  est  in  cerebro  et  corporis  nervis. 

(3)  Ex  hepatis  sanguine  est  animrc  materia  per  elabora- 
tionem  mirabilem. 

(4)  Hinc  dicitur  anima  esse  in  sanguine,  et  anima  ipsa  esse 

sanguis,    id  est  spiritus  sanguineus Non   dicitur   anima 

priii cipaliter  esse  in  parietibus  cordis,  aut  in  corpore  ipso 
cercbri,   aut   hepatis,   sed  in  sanguine,  ut  docet  ipse  Deus : 
Genes.  9,  Lev.  11  et  Deut.  12. 


HISTORY   OF  THE   DISCOVERY.  127 

takes  place  in  the  lungs;  for  it  is  not  necessary 
to  believe  as  is  commonly  taught,  says  Servetus, 
that  the  blood  passes  from  one  ventricle  to  the 
other  through  the  medium  septum ;  it  can  only 
pass  from  one  ventricle  to  the  other  by  way  of 
the  lungs ; l  and  here  comes  in  that  singular  pas- 
sage on  the  pulmonary  circulation. 

I  have  already  quoted  and  already  translated 
the  whole  of  this  remarkable  passage.  I  content 
myself  with  alluding  to  it  here,  and  must  return 
alas  !  to  blind  Servetus — to  Servetus  confused,  and 
absurd,  no  longer  inspired  by  genius. 

The  vital  spirits,  formed  in  the  lungs,  pass 
thence  into  the  left  ventricle  and  from  there  into 
the  arteries,  in  such  a  manner,  however,  that  the 
particles  of  greatest  rarity  tend  always  upwards, 
and  becoming  more  and  more  elaborated,  arrive 
at  the  plexus  retiformis,  situated  at  the  base  of 
the  brain,  where  from  vital  the  spirits  commence 
to  change  into  animal.2  Finally,  by  a  further  and 

(1)  Ad  quam  rem  est  prius  intelligenda  substantialis  ge- 
neratio  ipsius  vitalis  spiritus  qui  ex  acre  inspirato  et  subtil- 
issimo  sanguine  componitur...  Generator  exfacta  in  pulmonibu 
mixtione  inspirati  aeris  cum  elaborate  sanguine,  quern  dexter 

ventriculis  cordis  sinistro  communicat Fit  autem  commu- 

nicatio  htfic,  non  parietem  cordis  medium,  ut  vulgo  creditur, 
sed    magno   artificio  a  dextro   cordis   ventriculo,   longo  per 
pulmones  ductu,  agitatur  sanguis  subtilis 

(2)  "  Ille  itaque  spiritus  vitalis  a  sinistro  cordis  ventriculo 
in  arterias  totius  corporis  deinde  transfunditur,  ita  ut  qui 


128  CIRCULATION  OF  THE   BLOOD. 

complete  elaboration  the  animal  spirits  pass  from 
the  retiform  plexus  into  the  choroid  plexus,  and 
it  is  in  these  little  arteries  that  the  soul  resides1 

I  omit,  for  I  am  in  haste  to  finish,  a  host  of 
anatomical  errors  which  Servetus  joined  to  his 
confused  reasonings,  and  which  besides  are  only 
the  anatomical  and  physiological  errors  of  the 
times  in  which  he  lived,  such  for  instance  as  the 
brain  being  without  any  peculiar  function  but  only 
serving  as  a  pillar  or  cushion  for  the  vessels  of 
the  animal  spirits  ;2  that  the  nerves  are  the  contin- 
uation of  the  arteries  and  constitute  a  third  order 
of  vessels  ;3  that  the  ventricles  of  the  brain  com- 
municate with  the  nasal  fossae  by  the  foraminae  of 

tenuior  est  superiora  petat,  ubi  magis  adhuc  elaboratur, 
proecipue  in  plexu  retiformi,  sub  basi  cerebri  sito,  in'  quo  ex 
vitali  fieri  incipit  animalis,  ad  propriam  rationalis  animae 
Bedem.  accedens." 

(1)  Iterum   ille    (spiritus  animalis)  fortius  mentis  ignca  vi 
tenuatur,  elaboratur,   et  perficitur,   in  tenuissimis  vasis,  seu 
capillaribus  arteriis,  quao  in  plexibus  choroidibus  sitte  sunt, 
et  ipsissimam  mentem  continent. 

(2)  Ex  his  satis  constat,  mollem  illam  cerebri  massam  non 
proprie  esse  rationalis  animte  sedem,  cum  frigida  sit  et  sensus 
expers,  sed  esse  veluti  pulvinum  dictorum  vasorum  ne  rum- 
pantur,  et  custodem  animalis  spiritus 

(3)  Vasa  ilia  miraculo  magno  tenuissime  contexta,  tametsi 
arterice  dicantur,  sunt  tamen  fines  arteriarum,  tendentes  ad 
originem  nervorem,  ministerio  meningum.     Est  novum  quod- 
dam  genus  vasorum 


HISTORY   OF  THE   DISCOVERY.  129 

the  ethmoid  bone,  a  pretended  communication  in 
which  Servetus  saw  a  great  advantage,  for,  in  the 
first  place,  the  external  air  penetrates  thus  to  the 
soul  and  ventilates  and  replenishes  it,1  and  in  the 
second  place,  the  soul  gets  rid,  through  these 
openings,  of  mucus  which  would  have  embar- 
rassed its  action,2  and  also  escapes  a  very  great 
peril,  for  the  evil  spirit,  spiritus  nequam,  which  in. 
its  nature  resembles  air,  enters  sometimes  by  the 
same  route,  by  these  same  openings  in  the  ethmoid 
bone,  and  reaching  the  ventricles  of  the  brain, 
fights  there  incessantly  against  the  soul  and  holds 
it  beseiged  until  the  light  of  God  appears  and  puts 
it  to  fight,  etc.,  etc.3 

I  leave  Servetus ;  but  I  avail  myself  of  the 
opportunity  which  his  doctrines  have  given  me,  to 

(1) Facti  sunt  ventriculi   ut  ad  spatia  corum  inania 

penetrans  per  ossa  ethmoide  inspirati  aeris   portio ani- 

malem  intus  contentum  spiritum  reficiat,  et  animam  ventilet. 

(2) Facti  sunt  ventriculi  illi  ad  expurgamenta  cerebri 

recipienda,  veluti  cloacae,  ut  probant  excreraenta  ibi  recepta, 
et  meatus  ad  palatum  et  nares...  Et  quando  ventriculi 
oplentur  pituita,  ut  arterite  ipsce  choroidis  ea  immergantur, 
turn  subito  generatur  apoplexia. 

(3)  Spiritus  nequam,  cujus  potestas  est  aeris,  una  cum  in- 
spirato  a  nobis  acre,  lacunas  illas  libere  ingreditur,  ut  ubi 
cum  spiritu  nostro,  intra  vasa  ilia,  velut  in  arce  collocate, 
jugiter,  dimicat.  Imo  eum  ita  undique  obsidet,  ut  vix  illi 
liceat  respirare,  nisi  quum  superveniens  lux  spiritus  Dei 
malum  spiritum  fugat. 


130  CIRCULATION  OF  THE  BLOOD. 

cast  a  rapid  glance  at  the  long  reign  of  spirits  in 
physiology. 

The  spirits  played  in  ancient  physiology  the 
same  part  which  is  filled  now  by  properties,  or 
rather  the  forces.  Hence  their  great  importance. 
Galen  explained  everything  by  means  of  the 
spirits;  and,  as  we  have  seen,  he  gave  three 
species  of  them,  natural,  vital  and  animal. 

So  much  for  antiquity.  Reckoning  from  the 
revival  of  letters,  Galen's  three  kinds  of  spirits 
were  revived  and  existed  up  to  the  time  of  Descar- 
tes. When  Descartes  came  he  took  a  fancy  for 
the  animal  spirits  and  rejected  the  others. 

I  have  already  quoted  this  paragraph  from 
Bordeu :  "  The  ancients  admitted  three  kinds  of 
spirits;  it  is  not  easy  to  understand  by  what 
fatality  the  natural  and  the  vital  have  been  unable 
to  maintain  themselves  and  have  succumbed, 
while  the  animal  have  survived.1"  I  have  already 
responded  that  Bordeu  had  not  paid  attention,  [and 
that  nothing  is  easier  to  understand.  The  natural 
and  vital  spirits  gave  way  because  Descartes 
excluded  them ;  the  animal  spirits  remained  be- 
cause Descartes  adopted  them.  And  it  is  always 
thus.  It  is  the  writer  who  makes  the  fortune  of 
words. 

Descartes,  the  powerful  renovater  of  ideas,  but 

(1)  Rech.  anat.  sur  la  position  des  glandes  et  leur  ac- 
tion. §  34. 


HISTORY   OF  THE  DISCOVERY.  131 

who  borrowed  nevertheless,  a  great  deal  from  the 
ancients,  combined  the  theory  of  the  spirits,  which 
he  took  from  Galen,  with  the  circulation  of  the 
blood  which  Harvey  had  just  discovered.  He  was 
the  first  Frenchman  who  fully  understood  and 
clearly  described  this  great  phenomenon. 

"All  those,"  says,  Descartes,  "whom  the  au- 
thority of  the  ancients  has  not  entirely  blinded, 
and  who  have  been  willing  to  open  their  eyes  for 
the  examination  of  the  doctrines  of  Harvey  touch- 
ing the  circulation  of  the  blood,  do  not  doubt  that 
all  the  veins  and  the  arteries  of  the  body  are  only 
channels  through  which  the  blood  runs  unceas- 
ingly, taking  its  course  from  the  right  cavity 
of  the  heart  by  the  arterial  vein,  the  branches  of 
which  are  distributed  throughout  the  lungs,  and 
joined  to  those  of  the  venous  artery,  through 
which  it  passes  from  the  lung  into  the  left  side  of 
the  heart ;  then,  from  there  it  goes  into  the  grand 
artery  of  which  the  branches,  scattered  throughout 
the  body,  are  united  to  the  branches  of  the  vena 
cava,  which  return  the  same  blood  to  the  same 
right  cavity  of  the  heart."1 

The  complete  phenomena  of  the  circulation  of 
the  blood,  both  general  and  pulmonary,  could  not 
be  more  completely  or  more  briefly  described. 

But  on  the  other  hand,  this  is  how  Descartes 

(1)  Les passions  dc  Vame  :  Ire  partie,  art.  7. 

12 


132  CIRCULATION   OF   THE   BLOOD. 

came  to  conceive  of  the  animal  spirits  and  to  form 
his  idea  in  regard  to  their  action  in  the  organs. 

"It  is  known,"  he  says,  "that  all  the  move- 
ments of  the  muscles,  as  well  as  all  the  senses, 
depend  upon  the  nerves,  which  are  like  little 
threads  or  little  tubes  coming  from  the  brain, 
and  like  it,  containing  a  certain  gas  or  air,  very 

subtile,  called  the  animal  spirits."1 

The  most  subtile  parts  of  the  blood  form  the 
animal  spirits ;  and  they  have  no  need  of  receiv- 
ing for  this  purpose,  any  other  change  in  the 
brain,  but  are  only  separated  trom  other  and 
less-refined  parts  of  the  blood ;  for  what  I  call 
here  spirits  are  only  bodies,  and  have  no  peculiar 
properties  except  that  they  are  extremely  small, 
and  they  move  very  quickly  like  the  sparks  of  fire 
from  a  torch,  and  in  such  a  manner  that  they  do 
not  stop  anywhere,  but  as  fast  as  some  enter  the 
cavities  of  the  brain  others  come  out  through  the 
pores  of  its  substance,  which  pores  conduct  them 
into  the  nerves,  and  from  them  they  pass  into  the 
muscles,  by  which  means  the  body  is  moved  in  all 
the  diverse  manners  of  which  it  is  capable  of 
being  moved."  2 

What  was  especially  valuable  to  Descartes  in 
these  animal  spirits,  was  that  they  permitted  him 

(1)  Les  passions  de  V&me:  Ire  partie,  art.  7. 

(2)  Ibid,  art.  10. 


HISTORY    OF   THE   DISCOVERY.  133 

to  explain  all  the  actions  of  the  body  without  any 
assistance  from  the  soul ;  the  great  and  final  object 
of  his  beautiful  philosophy. 

"  All  the  movements  which  we  make,"  he  con- 
tinues, "  without  our  will  causing  them,  as  it  often 
happens  that  we  walk,  or  eat,  or  indeed  perform 
any  of  the  actions  common  to  us  and  to  the  beasts, 
depend  only  on  the  conformation  of  our  members 
and  on  the  course  which  the  spirits,  excited  by  the 
heat  of  the  heart,  follow  naturally  in  the  brain,  in 
the  nerves,  and  in  the  muscles;  in  the  same  manner 
as  the  movement  of  a  watch  is  produced  by  the 
force  of  its  spring  and  the  figure  of  its  wheels." l 

Thus  Descartes  accounted,  by  the  course  of  the 
spirits  alone,  for  all  the  functions  of  the  body;  and 
that  being  done  he  arrived  at  this  principal  conclu- 
sion, viz:  "there  remains  nothing  in  us  which  we 
should  attribute  to  the  soul,  except  our  thoughts."2 

After  the  first  Descartes  the  philosopher  who 
made  the  most  use  of  the  spirits,  is  one  who  may 
be  called  the  second  Descartes,  Malebranche. 

Malebranche  commences  one  of  his  chapters 
thus:  "Every  one  knows  that  the  animal  spirits 
are  only  the  most  subtile  and  most  agitated  parts  of 
the  blood,  which  are  produced  principally  by  fer- 
mentation and  by  the  violent  movement  of  the  mus- 
cles which  compose  the  heart,  that  these  spirits  are 

(1)  Les  passions  de  V&mc :  Ire  partie,  art.  16. 

(2)  Ibid.,  art.  17. 


134  CIRCULATION   OF  THE   BLOOD. 

conducted  by  the  arteries  with  the  rest  of  the 
blood,  as  far  as  the  brain " * 

Malebranche  conducted  the  spirits  intrepidly,  as 
we  see,  to  the  brain ;  but,  having  arrived  there, 
how  are  they  separated  from  that  organ?  He  ad- 
mitted with  good  grace  that  he  knew  nothing  about 
it.  "They  are  separated  from  it,"  he  says,  "by 
some  parts  destined  for  that  purpose,  which  are 
not  yet  known."  He  explains  in  another  place 
the  difference  which  he  considers  to  exist  between 
the  animal  spirits  and  the  brain.  "  There  is  this 
difference  between  the  animal  spirits  and  the  sub- 
stance of  the  brain,  the  spirits  are  very  restless 
and  very  fluid,  and  the  substance  of  the  brain  has 
some  solidity  and  consistence,  so  that  the  spirits 
divide  into  small  parties  and  disperse  in  a  few 
hours  by  transpiring  through  the  pores  of  the  ves- 
sels which  contain  them,  and  often  others  come  in 
their  place  which  are  not  at  all  similar  to  them."2 
And  Malebranche  says,  that  from  this  change  of 
spirits  arise  our  changes  in  humor  or  temper  ac- 
cording to  the  different  kinds  of  food  and  drink 
we  have  used  ! 

"Wine  is  so  spirituous  that  it  is  almost  wholly 
formed  into  animal  spirits,  but  spirits  which  are 
libertine,  and  will  not  submit  themselves  readily 

(1)  De  la  Recherche  de  la  verite,  1st  part  of  book  ii.,  chap,  ii  . 
('2)  Ibid.,  liv.  ii.,  chap.  vi. 


HISTORY   OF   THE   DISCOVERY.  135 

to  the  orders  of  the  will,  because  of  their  subtility 
and  their  excessive  agitation.  Thus,  in  the  most 
strong  and  vigorous  men  it  produces  more  and 
greater  changes  in  the  imagination  and  in  all  parts 
of  the  body  than  food,  or  than  any  other  beverage. 
It  trips  up  ones  heels,  as  Plautus  says;  and  pro- 
duces in  the  mind  effects  which  are  not  so  advan- 
tageous as  those  which  Horace  describes  in  the 
lines  commencing — 

'  Quid  non  ebrietas  designat.'  * 

The  great  Bossuet,  of  whom  it  can  scarcely  be 
said  that  he  followed  any  one  in  any  department 
of  knowledge,  nevertheless  adopted  the  ideas  of 
Descartes  in  philosophy:  he  says,  "the  spirits, 
carried  into  the  muscles  by  the  nerves  distributed 
through  the  members  cause  the  progressive  move- 
ments   "2  Again,  "the  spirits  are  the  most 

lively  and  most  agitated  part  of  the  blood,  and  set 
in  action  all  the  members."3  "As  soon  as  the 
spirits  are  lacking  the  springs  fail  for  want  of  a 
prime  mover."4  "The  passions,"  he  says  finally, 
"regarding  them  solely  in  the  body,  seem  to  be 
nothing  but  an  extraordinary  agitation  of  the 

(1)  De  la  Recherche  de  la  Verite,  liv.  ii.,  chap.  ii. 

(2)  De  la  Connaisaance  de  Dieu  et  de  soi-meme,  chap,  ii.,  J  6. 

(3)  Ibid.,  I  9. 

(4)  Ibid.,  §  12. 


136  CIRCULATION   OF  THE  BLOOD. 

spirits,  occasioned  by  certain  objects  which  we 
must  flee  or  pursue,  etc.,  etc."1 

Malebranche  died  in  1715;  Fontenelle  in  1757, 
and  with  the  latter  the  last  superior  representative 
of  Cartesianism.  With  Cartesianism  fell  the  animal 
spirits. 

In  1742,  a  young  man  full  of  spirit,  full  of  fire, 
full  of  ambition,  and  having  all  the  audacity  of 
youth,  sustained  a  thesis  at  the  school  of  Mont- 
pelier,  in  which  he  arraigned  the  spirits,  attacked 
them  rudely  and  violently,  and  what  is  worse,  for 
all  must  be  told,  he  ridiculed  them. 

"Might  not  an  unprejudiced  man,"  he  says, 
"who  would  give  himself  the  trouble  to  examine, 
be  able  to  prove  that  the  existence  of  any  one  of 
these  three  kinds  of  spirits — this  tripod,  or  if  you 
will,  this  triumvirate  of  ancient  physiology — is  but 
poorly  established.  As  to  the  manner  in  which 
the  moderns  sustain  them,  we  are  struck,  first,  by 
the  prodigious  number  of  forms  which  are  given  to 
them ;  some  say  they  are  air,  others  that  they  are 
fire,  or  water,  or  lymph;  they  are  said  to  be  acid, 
sulphurous,  active,  passive;  two  or  three  species  of 
them  are  given  which  flow  in  the  same  nerves; 
finally  they  have  received  all  kinds  of  figure,  even 
to  that  of  eddies  or  whirlpools,  or  little  balloons  with 
springs,  (petits  ballons  a  ressort]  to  use  the  terms  of 

(1)  De  la  connaisance  de  Dieu  el  de  soi-meme. 


HISTORY  OF  THE   DISCOVERY.  137 

M.  Lieutaud,  who  is  as  well  persuaded  of  the  exist- 
ence of  these  Gallons'  as  he  is  of  the  structure 
which  he  supposes  the  brain  to  have.  Let  us  add, 
he  continues,  and  always  very  ingeniously  and  very 
judiciously,  "let  us  add  that  those  who  admit  the 
existence  of  the  spirits  are  as  much  embarrassed 
to  explain  the  functions  of  the  nerves  as  those  who 
do  not  believe  in  them.  Are  we  any  farther  ad- 
vanced after  following  the  infinite  details  of  Boer- 
haeve  and  his  commentators  upon  this  question? 
Would  it  not  be  better  to  abandon  it  once  for  all, 
and  place  it  among  those  tiresome  questions  with 
which  the  ancients  commenced  their  physiologies? 
Shall  we  never  profit  by  the  errors  of  those  who 
have  preceded  us?" 

This  is  the  way  in  which  the  young  Bordeu,  then 
scarcely  twenty  years  old,1  treated  the  spirits,  and 
such  is  the  fortune  of  the  most  beautiful  doctrines 
of  philosophy.  These  same  spirits,  so  deeply  re- 
vered by  all  the  ancients,  and  in  modern  times  by 
such  men  as  Descartes,  Bossuet,  and  Malebranche, 
end  by  becoming  the  convenient  subject  for  the 
familiar  pleasantries  of  a  school-boy. 

(1)  He  was,  in  truth,  just  twenty,  having  been  born  in  1722, 
and  he  presented  his  thesis  in  1742,  Dissertalio  physiologica  de 
sensu  generice  considerate ;  but  he  was  thirty  when  he  published, 
in  1752,  his  Recherches  anatomique  sur  la  position  des  glandes  et 
sur  leur  action ;  an  excellent  and  much  better  matured  work, 
in  which  he  reproduced  his  criticism  of  the  spirits,  and  from 
which  I  have  taken  the  passages  just  quoted. 


138  CIECULATION   OF  THE   BLOOD. 

After  Bordeu  came  Barthez.  Physiology  was  as- 
suming a  new  aspect.  Barthez,  a  metaphysician  of 
a  superior  order,  was  the  first  who  in  physiology 
formed  a  clear  conception  of  the  forces,  I  mean  of 
forces  arising  from  the  facts,  or  as  he  well-called 
them  experimental  causes:1  "We  can  give,"  he 
says,  "to  these  general  causes  (of  the  phenomena 
of  life,)  which  I  call  experimental,  and  which  are 
only  known  by  their  laws  which  experiment  teaches, 
the  synonymous  and  equally  indeterminate  names  of 
principles,  powers,  forces,  faculties,  etc."  "Good 
method  in  philosophizing  in  the  science  of  man  re- 
quires that  there  should  be  referred  to  a  single 
principle  of  life  in  the  human  body  the  vital  forces 
which  reside  in  each  organ,  and  which  cause  its 
functions,  as  well  general,  such  as  sensibility,  nu- 
trition, etc.,  as  special,  such  as  digestion,  menstrua- 
tion, etc."2 

Meanwhile  the  true  idea  of  the  experimental 
cause,  or  principle,  or  force  in  physiology  was  not 
yet  fully  developed.  Barthez  rightly  called  forces 
the  cause  of  the  functions;  he  was  right  in  his  at- 
tempt to  connect  all  the  secondary  forces  to  one 
primary,  which  is  the  general  vital  force;  but  he 
was  wrong  to  make  this  general  and  common  force 

(1)  Nouv.  elem.  de  la  Sc.  de  I'homme,  Paris,  180G;  t.  i.,  Disc, 
prelim. 

(2)  Ibid. 


HISTORY   OF  THE   DISCOVERY.  139 

of  life  an  individual  being,  abstracted  and  detached 
from  the  organs;  and  he  was  still  farther  wrong 
in  believing  himself  able  to  explain  any  particular 
phenomenon  whatever  by  pronouncing  the  words 
vital  principle,  and  referring  its  origin  to  that,  for 
being  necessarily  involved  in  all,  the  vital  princi- 
ple could  not  serve  as  an  explanation  for  any 
single  one. 

The  true  problem  is  to  arrive  at  the  particular 
force  of  each  particular  phenomenon ;  at  the  prop- 
erty or  peculiar  faculty  which  causes  it.  This  has 
been  the  aim  of  all  physiologists  since  Haller. 
Since,  by  his  beautiful  experiments,  Haller  local- 
ized irritability  in  the  muscles  and  sensibility  in 
the  nerves,  the  way  for  great  discoveries  and  cer- 
tain advances  in  physiology  has  been  open,  for  all 
physiology  is,  I  would  say,  in  the  precise  localiza- 
tion of  each  given  vital  force  in  a  distinct  organic 
element. 

As  to  the  word  spirits,  (for,  as  soon  as  the  true 
name  of  the  causes  was  found,  it  has  been  only  a 
word,)  excluded  from  science  by  the  railleries  of 
Bordeu,  by  the  high  metaphysics  of  Barthez,  and 
by  the  positive  researches  of  Haller,  it  has  ap- 
peared no  more. 

Toward  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century,  in 
1779,  I  find  it  again  employed,  and  perhaps  it  is 
the'  last  time  it  has  been  used,  in  a  fine  page 
of  Buffon's,  but  it  is  in  a  very  general  sense,  and  it 


140  CIRCULATION   OF  THE  BLOOD. 

retains  scarcely  anything  of  its  primitive  and  tech- 
nical meaning.  Buffon  says,  in  regard  to  the  inde- 
fatigable activity  of  the  smallest  birds:  "The  most 
substantial  nourishment  is  necessary  to  support  the 
prodigious  vivacity  of  the  humming-bird,  compared 
with  its  extreme  smallness;  it  may  well  need  a 
supply  of  organic  molecules  to  sustain  so  much 
strength  in  such  delicate  organs,  and  maintain  the 
expenditure  of  spirits  necessary  for  such  perpetual 
and  rapid  movements." x 

(1)  Uistoire  des  oiseaux-mouchea. 


VI. 


GUY-PATIN      AND      THE      CONTEST    BETWEEN     ANCIENT    AND 
MODERN    PHYSIOLOGY. 

The  Letters  of  Guy-Patin  reveal  to  us  a  very 
curious  epoch  in  the  history  of  the  Faculty  of 
Medicine  of  Paris,  and  even  in  that  of  the  science 
itself.  I  reckon  three  grand  eras  in  medicine  since 
the  revival  of  letters :  the  Arabian,  the  .Greek 
and  Latin,  and  the  modern,  which  commences 
with  the  discovery  of  the  circulation  of  the  hlood. 

The  era  which  Guy-Patin  pictures  for  us  is  the 
second  of  these  three  divisions,  the  Greek  and 
Latin  epoch,  which  may  be  called  the  erudite 
period  of  French  medicine.  The  yoke  of  the 
Arabians  had  been  thrown  of ;  Hippocrates,  Aris- 
totle, Galen,  those  masters  of  ancient  learning, 
were  studied  with  enthusiasm,  and  everything 
modern  was  despised — the  circulation  of  the  blood, 
the  lymphatics,  chemistry,  and  everything  else. 

Guy-Patin  was,  par  excellence,  the  man  of  this 
period  :l  he  combatted  the  Arabians  ;  he  denounced 

(1)  Although  coming  a  little  later.  The  discovery  of  the 
circulation  of  the  blood  dates  between  1G19  and  1628,  and 
the  first  letters  of  Guy-Patin  were  written  in  1630.  He 
belonged  by  his  birth  to  the  third  epoch,  and  by  his  doctrines 
to  the  second. 


142  CIRCULATION   OF  THE  BLOOD. 

the  moderns,  he  was  fanatically  devoted  to  Hippo- 
crates and  Galen ;  he  would  receive  neither  the 
circulation  of  the  blood  nor  chemistry,  which  cer- 
tainly are  not  to  be  found  in  Galen  or  in  Hippo- 
crates; finally,  to  these  medical  prejudices  he 
added  two  others,  he  hated  antimony  because  it 
•was  the  gift  of  the  chemists  and  cinchona  because 
it  was  introduced  by  the  Jesuits. 

The  best  work  of  the  period  under  examination, 
the  age  of  Guy-Patin,  of  Riolan,  of  Baillou  and  of 
Fernel,  was  the  simplification  of  medicine  and  par- 
ticularly of  therapeutics.  The  therapeutics  of  the 
Arabians  was  a  chaos.  The  Greeks  did  not  use 
enough  remedies — the  Arabians  multiplied  them 
without  limit.  There  was  everything  in  their 
therapeia :  alchemy,  and  astrology,  while  occult 
qualities  predominated.  A  certain  boldness  of 
spirit  was  necessary  to  clear  science  of  these  false 
surroundings.  Fernel,  the  first  physician  of  his 
time,  still  believed  in  astrology.1  We  must  pay 
great  attention,  he  says,  to  astrological  observa- 
tions :  Astrologica  etiam  observatio  ui  non  parum 
efficax  tenenda.2  We  read  in  Guy  de  Chauliac 

(1)  He  at  least  commenced  by  believing  it;  he  regretted 
afterwards  the  time  employed  in  it.     See  his  biography  by 
Plancy :     Joannis  Fernelii,  Ambiani,   Galliarum    archiatri,  UNI- 
VERSA  MEDICINA,  etc.,  Geneva,  1680. 

(2)  Ibid.,  De  venue  secticne,  lib.  ii.  cap,  xiv  p.  202. 


HISTORY   OF   THE  DISCOVERY.  143 

that  the  figure  of  a  lion  imprinted  in  gold,  cured 
pains  in  the  loins.1 

Guy-Patin  admired  Fernel ;  he  called  him,  and 
with  justice,  a  great  man :  "  I  esteem  him  as  the 
wisest  and  most  polished  of  the  moderns  ;"2  never- 
theless he  did  not  join  him  in  his  belief  in  astrology 
and  occult  qualities. 

"  I  do  not  believe,"  he  says,  "  in  occult  qualities 
in  medicine,  whatever  Fernel  and  others  may  have 
said  on  the  subject,  for  their  sayings  are  not  all 
scripture  truth.  In  fact,  I  believe  in  medicine 

only  what  I  see Fernel  was  a  great  man, 

but,  as  he  did  not  say  everything,  so 

also  he  has  not  said  everything  truly,  in  his 
writings ;  and  if  the  good  man,  who  is  too  soon 
dead,  to  our  great  sorrow,  had  lived  longer,  he 
would  undoubtedly  have  changed  some  things  in 
his  works,  and  especially  upon  this  point."3 

He  says  elsewhere  in  regard  to  Jacques  Char- 
pentier  and  his  commentary  on  Alcinous :  "  He 

(1)  Ast.ruc:   Memoirs  pour  servir  a  Vhistoire  de  la  Faculle  de 
medicine  de  Montpellier,  Paris,  1767,  p.  191. 

(2)  Letters  de    Guy-Patin,  nouvelle   edition   augmentee  de 
letters    ineditees,    precedees  d'une  Notice    biographique,  ac- 
compagnce  de  remarques  scientifiques,  bistoriques,  et  liter- 
aires,  par  Reveille-Parise,  18-10,  t  i,  p.  10. 

(3)  Ibid,  t.  i,  p.  9. 

[The  quotations  from  Guy-Patin  occurring  hereafter  are 
from  his  "Letters"  unless  otherwise  indicated. —  2V.] 


144  CIRCULATION   OF   THE   BLOOD. 

there  follows  particularly  the  guidance  and  the 
opinion  of  Fernel,  who  in  these  matters  was  a 
great  Platonist,  and  who  believed  much  more  than 
I  do  of  dernonomania." 

In  truth,  Guy-Patin  could  scarcely  be  reproach- 
ed with  being  too  credulous.  I  speak,  of  course, 
only  in  regard  to  medicine,  and  I  think  that  this 
sentence  of  Bayle  applies  well  to  him ;  "  his  creed 
was  not  burdened  with  many  articles."  1 

His  creed  contained  indeed  so  few  articles  that 
there  were  only  two  of  them  :  bleeding  and  purg- 
ing I  All  the  rest,  antimony,  opium,  tea,  cinchona, 
etc.,  are  rejected ;  opium  as  a  poison,  tea  as  "an 
impertinent  novelty  of  the  age,"  antimony  because 
it  was  proscribed  by  the  faculty,  and  cinchona, 
worse  than  all,  because  it  was  the  Jesuit's  pow- 
der!2 

Of  all  the  new  remedies  Guy-Patin  was  alone 
favorable  to  senna;  but,  in  revenge,  to  that  he 
was  entirely  devoted.  He  says ;  "  senna  works 
more  miracles  than  all  the  drugs  brought  to  us 
from  the  Indies."  He  added  to  senna,  cassia,  and 
the  syrup  of  white  roses ;  and  that  was  his  entire 
pharmacopeia.  "  So  long  as  we  have  senna,  cassia, 
and  syrup  of  white  roses,  we  can  continue  to  de- 
liver Paris  from  the  tyranny  of  the  apothecaries." 

(1)  Diet.  hist,  et  critique  art.  Guy-Patin. 

(2)  Letters,  it.  i  and  ii. 


HISTORY  OP   THE  DISCOVERY.  145 

This  man  with  a  mind  so  active,  so  penetrating 
and  so  prompt,  but  at  the  same  time  so  prejudiced, 
so  determined,  and  so  self-willed,  imposed  upon 
himself  the  task  of  simplifying  the  science  of 
medicine,  of  rendering  it  easy  and  familiar ; 1 
I  make  use  of  his  own  expressions.  For  he  saw 
it  everywhere  disgraced  by  the  superstitious  prac- 
tices 2  of  the  Arabians,  by  the  covetousness  of  the 
apothecaries,  and  by  the  blind  tenacity  of  the 
chemical  physicians  of  his  time.  He  assisted 
Guenaut  in  his  experiments  with  antimony,  expe- 
riments which  were  often  fatal,  if  we  may  believe 
Guy-Patin,  or  even  the  poet,  which  is  the  same 
as  to  say  all  the  world. 

According  to  Guy-Patin  antimony  alone  has 
killed  more  people  than  did  the  King  of  Sweden 
in  Germany  ;  and  everybody  knows  what  the  poet 

says: 

"  On  compterait  plutot  combien  dans  un  printempg 
Guenaut  et  1'antimoine  ont  fait  mourir  de  gens "3 

After  this  we  need  not  be  astonished  at  the  war 
which  Guy-Patin  carried  on  against  the  Arabians, 
against  antimony,  and  against  apothecaries  ;  against 
the  apothecaries  above  all,  for  them  in  he  could  par- 

(1)  "Je  rends  la  pharmacie  la  plus  populaire  qu'il  m'  est 
possible."     (T.  i,  p.  23.) 

(2)  "It  is  the  Arabians  who  have  introduced  into  medicine 
these  scrupulous  and  superstitious  observances."    (t.  ii,  p.  68.) 

(3)  Boilean:  Satire,  iv. 


146  CIRCULATION    OF   THE    BLOOD. 

don  nothing ;  neither  their  Arabianism,  their  chem- 
istry, their  drugs,  nor  their  pills? 

"  He  also  spoke  to  me  of  M.  Moze,  the  apothe- 
cary, who  esteems  me  highly  as  he  says ;  upon 
which  I  expressed  my  astonishment,  in  view  of  the 
fact  that  I  had  never  done  anything  to  make  the 
apothecaries  esteem  me,  that  I  had  never  pre- 
scribed their  bezoars,  nor  their  cordial  waters, 
neither  theriaca,  nor  mithridate,  neither  the  con- 
fection of  hyacinth  nor  of  alkermes,  nor  the  powder 
of  vipers,  nor  antimonial  wine,  nor  pearls,  nor 
precious  stones,  nor  any  other  such  Arabian  follies; 
that  I  always  preferred  simple  remedies  which 
were  neither  dear  nor  rare,  and  that  I  made  the 
science  of  medicine  as  simple  as  I  possibly  could." 

"  As  to  my  dear  enemies,  the  apothecaries," 
he  says  again,  "  they  have  complained  to  our 
faculty  of  my  last  thesis  in  which  they  are  ridi- 
culed  I  spoke  against  their  bezoars, 

their  confection  of  alkermes,  their  theriaque,  and 

their  charges." "I  leave  this  multitude 

of  remedies  to  those  who  practice  medicine  for 
pomp  and  display,  and  who  have  an  understanding 
with  the  apothecaries."  T 

(1)  Letters,  t.  iii,  p.  541.  "  The  apothecaries  are  enraged 
against  those  physicians  who,  to  prevent  their  tyranny,  pre- 
scribe in  French  and  make  their  own  remedies:  cassia,  senna, 
syrup  of  peach  flowers,  of  white  roses,  and  of  chicory  with 
rhubarb,  suffice  for  nearly  everything.  I  have  never  seen  a 


HISTORY   OF   THE   DISCOVERY.  147 

Thus  then  even  in  his  most  lively  pleasantries 
at  the  expense  of  his  "  dear  enemies  the  apothe- 
caries," Guy-Patin  never  forgot  the  object  he  had 
in  view,  the  philosophic  and  elevated  idea  of 
simplifying  medicine.  "  For  myself,  I  agree  with 
MM.  les  Pietres,  whose  motto  is — ad  bene  meden- 
dum,  quam  paitca,  sed  selecta  et  bene  probata  reme- 
dia"  "  The  grand  Chancellor  of  England,  Lord 
Bacon,  has  wisely  said  that  multitude  remediorum 
estfilia  ignorantice" 

But  by  constantly  laboring  to  impress  this  view  he 
exaggerated  its  importance  ;  his  only  remedies,  as  I 
just  now  said,  were  cathartics  and  phlebotomy,  and 
by  a  sort  of  compensation,  upon  his  side,  he  abused 
them. 

Let  us  commence  with  the  latter.  He  ordered 
bleeding  at  every  period  of  life,  in  infancy  as  well 
as  old  age ; l  he  bled  a  patient  thirty-two  times 
during  one  illness  ;  he  caused  himself  to  be  bled 
seven  times  for  a  cold ;  he  bled  his  mother-in-law 
who  was  eighty-years  of  age,  four  times;  he  or- 

disease  curable  at  all,  which  could  not  be  cured  without  anti- 
mony, although  sometimes  for  the  benefit  of  the  most  bigoted, 
I  make  use  of  our  confections  scammonees  such  as  diaphenic, 
diaprun  solutif,  Jiacartheme,  dipsilium;  but  we  must  watch 
closely  and  not  take  martre  pour  renard. ' 

(1)  "  We  cure  our  patients  who  are  past  eighty  by  bleeding, 
and  we  deplete  as  happily  infants  of  two  and  three  months 
of  age."  (t.  ii,  p.  419.) 

13 


148  CIRCULATION  OF   THE   BLOOD. 

dered  bleeding  for  an  infant  three  days  old;  he 
caused  his  own  wife  to  be  bled  eight  times  in  the 
veins  of  the  arm,  and  afterward  bled  her  in  those 
of  the  foot ;  she  recovered,  and  he  exclaimed : 
"  Vive  !  the  happy  method  of  Galen,  and  the  fine 
verse  of  Joachim  de  Bellay : 

'0  bonne,  6  saincte,  6  divine  saignee!' 

Now  for  cathartics.  There  is  first  a  patient 
"who  has  been  purged  thirty-two  times  every  other 
day;"  there  is  another  who  has  been  bled,  in  all, 
seventy-two  times,  and  purged  forty ;  again,  it  is 
the  doctrine  of  Galen  and  Hippocrates  "to  purge 
every  day, — quotidie  licet  purgare"  on  condition, 
however,  that  senna  is  used :  senna  and  phlebotomy 
are  the  whole  of  medicine.1 

"We  cure  more  patients,"  says  Guy-Patin,  "with 
a  good  lancet  and  a  pound  of  senna,  than  the  Ara- 
bians could  with  all  their  syrups  and  their  opiates;" 
and  his  patients  died,  (for  certainly  all  did  not 

(1)  [Moliere  must  have  had  him  in  mind  when  writing  his 
burlesque  of  the  examination  of  an  aspirant  for  a  degree  by 
the  Faculty  of  Medicine  in  "  Le  Malade  imaginaire."  To  all 
questions  in  regard  to  the  treatment  of  any  disease  the  candi- 
date duly  responds 

''  Clysterium  donare 
Postea  seignare 
Ensuita  purgare!" 

And  if  this  does  not  prove  successful,  the  only  course  is  to 
"  Reseignare,  repurgare  et  reclysterisare!"  — Tr.] 


HISTORY   OF  THE  DISCOVERT.  149 

recover,)  like  those  of  the  physician  described  by 
Boileau: 

"L'un  meurt  vide  de  sang,  1'autre  plein  de  send  I"1 

Guy-Patin  started  with  the  excellent  principle 
of  simplifying  medicine  and  he  ended  by  reducing 
it  to  bleeding  and  senna.  A  physician  of  our  day, 
as  resolute  and  as  bold  as  Guy-Patin  has  reduced 
it  to  leeches  and  gum-water.  In  everything  human 
there  is  some  evil ;  in  reform  it  is  exaggeration. 

It  must  not  be  thought,  however,  that  Guy-Patin 
was  always  as  unreasonable  as  in  the  extracts  here 
given.  No  one  had  better  sense,  or  was  clearer 
and  more  judicious  than  he  was  at  times.  A  wiser, 
better  and  more  complete  judgment  upon  the  com- 
parative merits  of  Greek  and  Arabian  medicine  has 
never  been  rendered  than  that  which  follows: 

"As  to  the  Arabians,  I  will  tell  you  what  I 
think;  in  regard  to  their  doctrines,  all  they  had 
valuable  was  taken  from  the  Greeks;  in  regard  to 
their  remedies,  they  lived  in  a  time  when  they 
could  have  had  better  ones  than  existed  in  the  days 
of  Hippocrates ;  but  they  abused  them,  and  intro- 
duced that  miserable  arabesque  pharmacy  with  a 
multitude  of  useless  and  superfluous  drugs.  The 
great  abuse  of  medicine  comes  from  a  plurality  of 
useless  remedies  and  these  caused  blood-letting  to 
be  too  much  neglected.  The  Arabians  are  the 

(1)  Artpottique,  chant,  iv. 


150  CIRCULATION   OF   THE   BLOOD. 

cause  of  both Mesue  has  too  much  credit  in 

the  world But  we  should  be  very  wrong  to 

abandon  and  give  up  good  remedies  which  have 
been  in  use  from  the  time  of  the  Arabians,  in  order 
to  return  to  those  of  the  days  of  Hippocrates  which 

are  far  less  valuable It  is  the  doctrine   of 

indications  which  has  made  the  physician  what 
he  is;  and  for  this  we  are  entirely  indebted  to  the 
Greeks." 

In  spite  of  his  admiration  of  Hippocrates  he 
admitted  that  there  was  one  passnge  of  that 
great  man's  works  which,  being  misunderstood, 
"had  cut  the  throat,  and  cost  the  life  of  more  than 
fifty  thousand  persons."  He  says  elsewhere,  "  It 
is  a  fine  aphorism,  but  it  should  not  be  abused ; 
our  patients  have  nothing  to  do  with  our  scholastic 
disputes." 

Finally,  even  antimony  obtains  from  him  in 
calmer  moments  more  circumspect  remarks.  "  If 
any  one  is  to  make  use  of  this  remedy,  which  in  its 
nature  is  so  pernicious  and  so  extremely  dangerous, 
he  should  be  a  good  theoretical  and  practical  physi- 
cian and  very  judicious,  neither  ignorant  nor  reck- 
less; it  is  not  a  proper  drug  for  the  rattle-headed." 

Nothing  could  be  more  judicious.  New  remedies, 
when  they  are  energetic,  demand  a  judicious  and 
experienced  physician.  We  should  study  them, 
watch  them  and  follow  them;  not  reject  and  pro- 
scribe them  nor  condemn  them  by  decrees  of  the 


HISTORY   OF  THE  DISCOVERT.  151 

Faculty.1  In  what  condition  should  we  have  been 
now  had  our  predecessors  followed  Guy-Patin  and 
the  Faculty?  We  should  not  have  had  antimony, 
opium,  or  cinchona ;  we  should  have  known  nothing 
of  the  circulation  of  the  blood,  the  lymphatic  ves- 
sels, the  receptaculum  chyli,  and  many  other  things ; 
we  should  have  been  without  both  chemistry  and 
physiology,  the  two  sciences  which  have  given  us 
modern  medicine.  How  could  the  dean  of  the 
faculty  of  medicine  of  Paris,  a  professor  of  the 
College  of  France,  for  Guy-Patin  filled  both  these 
offices,  how,  we  ask,  could  he  write  such  words  as 
the  following,  while  standing  side  by  side  with  the 
great  Englishman,  Harvey,  who  discovered  the  cir- 
culation of  the  blood,  and  the  greatest  of  French- 
men, Descartes,  who  proclaimed  it? 

"  If  M.  Duryer  knows  only  how  to  tell  false- 
hoods and  the  circulation  of  the  blood,  he  knows 
only  two  things,  of  which  I  heartily  hate  the  first 
and  care  very  little  about  the  second.  If  he  re- 
turns I  will  teach  him  more  important  things  in 
medicine  than  the  pretended  circulation."2 

(1)  There  were  two  decrees  of  the  Faculty  against  antimony. 
[A  sketch  of  the  celebrated  contest  between  the  Galenical 

and  chemical  physicians,  and  a  notice  of  the  decrees  and 
counter  decrees  in  regard  to  antimony  will  be  found  in  the 
"Revolutionary  History  of  the  Materia  Medica,"  in  Paris' 
Pharmacology. —  TrJ\ 

(2)  Letlres,  t.  i.,  p.  513.     The  pretended  circulation  ! — Moliere 
could  not  do  better.    "  But  that  which  pleases  me  in  him  above 


152 


CIRCULATION   OF  TIIE  BLOOD. 


Pecquet  was  at  Paris  with  Guy-Patin ;  perhaps 
he  prescribed  antimony;  however,  he  discovered 
the  reservoir  of  the  chyle,  the  last  fact  which  com- 
pleted the  new  theory  of  the  circulation  of  the 
blood,  and  Guy-Patin  contented  himself  with  say- 
ing: "The  whole  discovery  of  Pecquet  is  a  novelty 
which  I  am  quite  ready  to  believe  when  it  shall 
have  been  demonstrated,  and  when  it  proves  of 
convenience  and  utility  in  morborum  curatione; 
quo  excepto  I  will  have  nothing  to  do  with  it." 

I  hasten  to  leave  this  puerile  language  and  these 
culpable  prejudices  of  Guy-Patin,  and  return  to 
what  he  did  more  illustrious  and  more  worthy  our 
attention.  He  was  truly  a  wise  and  learned  man; 
full  of  Greek  and  Latin  knowledge,  a  man  of  belles- 
lettres;  he  said  himself,  "learning  and  good  sense 
are  all." 

He  says,  "I  love  only  Galen  and  Hippocrates; 
I  esteem  Fernel,  Duret,  Hollier,  Heurnius ;  our 
good  friend  Gaspard  Hoffman  does  not  displease 
me  at  all,  propter  suam  breviloquentiam  and  for 
his  criticism;  cceteris  lubens  abstineo.  I  employ 
what  spare  time  I  have  better  elsewhere ;  the  ma- 

everything  else,  and  in  •which  he  follows  my  example,  is  that 
he  follows  blindly  the  opinions  of  our  seniors,  and  that  he  has 
never  wished  to  understand  nor  has  he  examined  the  reasons 
and  experiments  in  favor  of  the  pretended  discoveries  of  our 
times  in  regard  to  the  circulation  of  the  blood,  and  other  doc- 
trines of  the  same  class." — (Moliere.  Le  Malade  imaginaire.) 


HISTORY   OF   THE   DISCOVERY.  153 

jority  of  modern  authors  contain  nothing  hut  repe- 
titions." 

He  employed  better  "elsewhere"  his  spare  time; 
and  it  is  easy  to  divine  what  he  meant  by  "else- 
where." 

"I  am  guilty  of  no  dissipation  except  in  my 
study  with  my  books.  The  late  M.  Pietre,  an  in- 
comparable man  in  goodness  as  well  as  in  science, 
was  accustomed  to  say  that  he  was  guilty  of  dissi- 
pation only  in  reading  Cicero  and  Seneca,  but  that 
he  easily  brought  himself  back  again  to  duty  by 
the  perusal  of  Galen*  and  Fernel." 

This  trait  is  charming.  He  had  that  elevated 
mind  in  which  the  love  of  letters  is  a  passion.  He 
wished  to  go  to  Germany  to  see  his  friend  Hoff- 
man :  he  went  to  Basle  "  to  see  there  the  tomb  of 
the  great  Erasmus."  He  visited  the  tombs  of  the 
kings  at  St.  Denis:  "some  tears  escaped  me  before 
the  monument  of  that  great  and  good  king  Francis 
I.,  who  founded  our  college  of  royal  professors;  I 
must  confess  my  weakness  to  you,  I  even  kissed  it, 
and  that  of  his  father-in-law  Louis  XII.,  the  father 
of  his  people,  and  the  best  king  we  have  ever  had 
in  France."  He  brought  his  two  sons  to  the  tomb 
of  Fernel.  "  One  hundred  and  two  years  ago  to- 
day, the  sixteenth  of  April,  died  J.  Fernel,  a  great 
and  illustrious  man,  of  whom  the  memory  will  last 
as  long  as  the  world,  aid  saltern  quamdiu  honos 
habebitur  bonis  litteris;  he  is  interred  in  St.  Jac- 


154  CIRCULATION   OF  THE  BLOOD. 

ques-de-la-Boucharie,  near  here.  I  often  take  ray 
two  sons  there  and  exhort  them  to  become  like 
him."  He  esteemed  Fern  el  so  highly  that  he 
would  prefer  to  be  descended  from  Mm  than  to  be 
king.  "I  am  delighted  that  you  love  our  Fernel 
so  well;  he  is  one  of  my  saints,  with  Galen  and 
the  late  M.  Pietre.  I  should  esteem  it  a  greater 
glory  to  he  descended  from  Fernel  than  to  he  king 
of  Scotland,  or  a  relation  of  the  emperor  of  Con- 
stantinople. Fernel  was  good,  wise  and  learned." 

He  had  the  gift  of  writing  and  relating  good 
stories:  "Yesterday  ahout  two  o'clock,  in  the  wood 
of  Vincennes,  four  of  his  physicians,  (Mazarin's), 
viz :  Guenaut,  Valot,  Bayer,  and  Beda,  altercated, 
and  could  not  agree  about  the  disease  of  which  a 
patient  was  dying.  Bayer  said  the  spleen  was 
mortified;  Guinaut  said  it  was  the  liver;  Valot 
said  it  was  the  lungs,  and  there  was  water  in  the 
chest;  and  Beda  maintained  that  it  was  an  abscess 
of  the  mesentery,  and  that  the  pus  had  been  dis- 
charged, he  had  seen  it  in  the  stools ;  and  in  this 
case  he  had  seen  what  none  of  the  others  saw! — 
Are  they  not  skillful  men!" 

Moliere  could  not  have  omitted  such  a  comic 
scene,1  nor  St.  Simon,  the  eloquent  St.  Simon,  the 

(1)  "The  physicians  debated  below  as  usual,  and  did  not 
fail  to  disagree,  some  saying  that  the  disease  arose  from  the 
brain,  some  from  the  intestines,  some  from  the  spleen,  some 
from  the  liver." — (Le  Medecin  malgri  lui.) 


HISTORY   OF  THE   DISCOVERY.  155 

following  striking  passage  among  many  others : 
"We  live  in  Paris  as  Juvenal  says  of  Rome:  hie 
vivimus  ambitiosd  pauperpate,  etc.  I  see  nothing 
but  vanity,  misery  and  avarice,  imposture  and  ras- 
cality. God  has  reserved  us  for  a  knavish  and 
dangerous  age;  it  will  soon  be  of  great  conse- 
quence to  be  an  honest  man,  so  much  has  corrup- 
tion been  increased  among  all  sorts  of  people  for 
forty  years  past,  by  war,  by  two  cardinals,  who 
have  been  two  great  tyrants,  and  by  the  reign 
of  partisans,  who  have  devoured  and  exhausted 
France." 

His  mind  presented  many  analogies  with  the 
mind  of  Rabelais,  of  Bayle  and  of  Voltaire;  he 
called  Juvenal  his  dear  friend;  he  painted  Tacitus 
"that  master  man"  in  a  remarkable  manner: 
"Cornelius  Tacitus,  who  was  a  breviary  of  State, 
and  the  premier,  or  grand  master  of  the  secrets  of 
the  cabinet,  and  whom  even  M.  de  Balzac  has 
somewhere  called  the  ancient  original  of  modern 
finesse.  Cardinal  Richelieu  read  and  practiced 
Tacitus  closely ;  he  was  also  a  terrible  man.  Ma- 
chiavelli  is  another  instructor  for  such  ministers  of 
state,  but  he  is  only  a  diminutive  Tacitus." 

[Le  Sage  also  gives  a  similar  ridiculous  scene  in  chap.  iii. 
of  Book  iv.  of  Gil  Bias,  in  •which  two  of  the  "  most  eminent 
physicians  of  Madrid"  could  not  agree  as  to  whether  the 
humors  should  be  purged  off  before  being  concocted  or  not, 
and  as  to  what  Hippocrates  taught  on  the  subject. — TrJ\ 

14 


156  CIRCULATION   OF  THE  BLOOD. 

Finally,  he  had  noble  and  virtuous  friends.  That 
society,  which  he  dreamed  for  another  world,  he 
chose  for  himself  in  this :  "  Socrates  and  another 
philosopher  consoled  themselves  in  dying  that  they 
would  see  in  the  other  world  honest  men,  philoso- 
phers, poets  and  physicians.  I  am  of  the  same 
sentiment.  If  I  can  there  meet  Cicero,  Virgil, 
Aristotle,  Plato,  Juvenal,  Horace,  Galen,  Fernel, 
Simon  and  Nicolas  Pietre,  Moreau  and  Riolan,  I 
shall  not  be  in  bad  company ;  there  is  something 
in  that  to  console  me." 

His  friends  were  the  learned  Naude,  Gassendi, 
Lamoignon,  whose  names  it  is  sufficient  to  men- 
tion, and  this  same  Riolan  and  Pietre  whom  he 
hoped  to  meet  hereafter.  "Monsieur,  the  first 
president,  sends  for  me  sometimes  to  dine  with 
him ;  he  makes  grand  cheer  for  me ;  but  his  hearty 
reception  is  worth  more  than  all  the  rest.  I  have 
promised  to  dine  with  him  every  Sunday  of  this 
Lent,  and  after  that  we  will  make  other  arrange- 
ments according  to  the  season.  It  is  pleasant  to 
visit  him  for  he  is  the  most  learned  of  the  long  robe 
in  France.  He  is  very  acute  and  very  civil,  and 
says,  smiling,  that  we  must  not  speak  evil  of  the 
Jesuits  and  the  monks,  but  he  is  delighted  when  a 
bon  mot  escapes  me  against  them." 

How  full  of  interest  are  all  these  details  now! 
"I  supped  lately  with  M.  the  premier  president, 
•who  sent  to  invite  me  in  the  morning.  He  com- 


HISTORY  OF  TEE  DISCOVERT.  157 

plained  because  I  did  not  call  to  see  him,  said 
that  I  ought  sometimes  to  come  and  entertain  him, 
and  that  I  ought  to  have  pity  upon  him  on  account 
of  the  difficulties  he  had  in  the  administration  of 
his  office After  supper  we  entertained  our- 
selves by  the  fireside.  Among  other  things  he 
told  me  I  ought  to  be  very  happy,  since  having 
visited  my  patients  I  had  only  to  pass  my  time 
•with  my  books;  that,  for  him,  his  office  was  killing 
him,  and  he  thought  himself  far  more  unfortunate 
than  M.  Patin.  In  truth,  great  dignities  are 
charges,  which  like  hand-cuffs  and  fetters  deprive 
us  of  our  liberty  and  make  us  the  slaves  of  all  the 
world.  This  public  office  obliges  him  to  give  au- 
dience to  every  one,  takes  away  from  him  the 
means  and  the  leisure  for  diverting  himself  with 
study  which  he  naturally  loves,  and  obliges  him  to 
rise  every  palace  day  at  four  o'clock  in  the  morn- 
ing ;  yet  nevertheless,  and  notwithstanding  all  his 
complaints,  it  is  a  very  fine  and  a  very  important 

dignity." 

What  a  fine  quaint  style,  how  expressive,  pre- 
cise, and  how  well-marked  by  all  the  shades  of  life ! 
And  on  the  other  hand,  what  a  picture  of  this  first 
president,  who  gets  up  at  four  o'clock  in  the  morn- 
ing, who  has  not  leisure  to  divert  himself  with  study, 
who  says  we  must  not  speak  evil  of  the  Jesuits,  and 
who  is  delighted  when  others  do  it !  All  this  is 
life-like. 


158  CIRCULATION   OF  THE   BLOOD. 

I  have  said  nothing  yet  of  the  character  of  Guy- 
Patin,  and  perhaps  it  is  not  necessary  that  I  should. 
The  friendship  of  the  chief  magistrate,  and  such  an 
one  as  Lamoignon,  is  an  index  of  this  character. 
We  have  seen,  too,  the  style  of  his  writing.  One 
of  the  qualities  the  most  strongly  marked  of  this 
style  is  the  evidence  it  gives  of  the  honest  man. 

I  have  just  thrown  a  rapid  glance  upon  Guy- 
Patin  and  his  age :  the  age  and  the  man  both  de- 
mand a  closer  examination,  and  this  must  be  the 
object  of  another  chapter. 


VII. 


GUY-PATIN  AND    THE   FACULTY   OF  PARIS. 

WE  have  had  until  now  only  the  exterior  history 
of  the  Faculty  of  Medicine  of  Paris.  Guy-Patin 
gives  us  its  internal  history.  He  exposes  to  us  the 
hidden  springs  which  moved  this  great  body.  He 
knows  all  its  secrets,  and  keeps  none  of  them. 
He  tells  us  all  because  he  does  not  know  he  is 
speaking  for  our  benefit,  and  his  account  is  the 
more  reliable  because  he  little  thought  he  was 
writing  history. 

No  one  has  better  informed  us  in  regard  to  the 
usages,  or  to  speak  like  him,  the  ceremonies1  of  the 
Faculty.  Let  us  commence  with  the  most  impor- 
tant act  of  this  body,  the  election  of  dean.  Guy- 
Patin  was  dean  once,  and  three  times  his  name 
remained  in  the  hat.  This  is  his  account  of  the 
manner  in  which  the  affair  was  conducted: 

"All  the  Faculty  being  assembled,  the  dean  who 
is  about  to  retire  from  office  thanks  the  company 
for  the  honor  which  has  been  conferred  upon  him, 

(1)  "All  these  ceremonies  are  very  ancient  and  are  re- 
ligiously observed,  out  of  respect  for  their  antiquity." — (T.  ii., 
p.  566.) 


160  CIRCULATION   OF  THE  BLOOD. 

and  requests  them  to  elect  another  to  fill  his  place; 
the  names  of  all  the  doctors  present,  for  no  ab- 
sentee can  be  elected,  are  on  the  table  on  as  many 
ballots ;  the  first  half,  from  above  downward,  are 
then  placed  in  a  hat,  and  this  is  called  the  grand 
lane.  There  are  now  one  hundred  and  twelve 
members  and  the  grand  bane  then  consists  of  the 
first  fifty-six.  When  these  ballots  have  been  well 
shaken  and  mixed  in  the  hat  by  the  ancient,  or 
senior,  of  the  company,1  which  is  at  present  M. 
Riolan,  the  retiring  dean  draws  out  three,  one  after 
the  other;  and  two  names  are  also  immediately 
drawn  from  the  petit  bane.  Here  are  five  doctors 
neither  of  whom  can  at  this  time  be  dean,  but  they 
are  the  electors,  who,  after  having  publicly  taken  an 
oath  of  fidelity,  are  shut  in  the  chapel  where  they 
choose  three  members  from  the  fellows  present 
whom  they  judge  worthy  of  the  office — two  being 
chosen  from  the  grand  bane  and  one  from  the  petit 
bane;  these  three  names  are  then  placed  in  the 
hat  by  the  ancient,  and  the  dean,  with  widely  ex- 
tended arm  draws  one  out,  and  the  member  whose 
name  is  drawn  is  the  dean  elect." 

After  the  dean  came  the  doctors-regent.  They 
•were  elected  in  the  same  manner.  And  after  these 

(1)  Eancien  de  la  compagnie  ou  fancien  mailre.  "  The  oldest 
doctor  of  the  company  is  called  the  master  and  can  not  be 
termed  dean;  this  being  denied  him  by  a  decree  of  the 
court."— (T.  ii.,  p.  566.) 


HISTORY  OF  THE  DISCOVERY.  161 

followed  the  doctors,  and  for  these  the  examina- 
tions were  very  numerous ;  there  were  some  for  the 
baccalaureate,  for  the  license,  and  for  the  degree. 
There  were  theses  of  all  kinds,  the  quodlibetiares, 
the  cardinal,  etc.  They  knew  how  to  be  severe, 
at  least  in  the  days  of  which  I  am  speaking. 

"Saturday,  March  20th,  we  have  passed  ten 
bachelors  who  are  about  to  commence  their  course 
of  two  years;  we  have  also  sent  back  two  in  order 
that  they  may  amend  and  study  better  for  the 
future ;  unless  they  do  so  within  that  period  of 
time,  they  will  fail  of  their  duty,  and  we  shall  ex- 
pel them  from  our  schools  as  indolent  and  unworthy 
of  our  privileges." 

I  remark  the  two  years  of  perpetual  disputation  ; 
our  two  years  of  clinical  instruction  are  assuredly 
much  better  spent,  and  yet  we  should  exaggerate 
nothing;  these  practiced  debaters  often  became 
admirable  men  of  science.  Says  Riolan:  "When 
the  king,  Henry  the  Great,  wished  to  prove  the 
falsehoods  in  the  books  of  M.  Plessis-Mornay  in 
regard  to  religion,  which  the  Bishop  of  Evreux, 
since  Cardinal  du  Perron,  promised  to  point  out 
and  verify,  as  he  did,  a  learned  physician  of  our 
school,  named  Martin,  was  chosen  to  oppose  Ca- 
saubon  who  was  held  the  most  learned  man  of  the 
age,  after  Joseph  Scaliger  who  lived  in  Holland." 1 

(1)   Curieuses  recherches  sur  lea  ecokt  en  medicine  de  Paris  el  de 
Montpellier.    Paris,  1651,  p.  34.) 


162  CIRCULATION   OF  THE  BLOOD. 

It  was  by  their  science,  their  erudition  and  their 
literary  attainments  that  the  Fernels,  the  Holliers, 
the  Durets,  and  the  two  Riolans,  father  and  son, 
elevated,  ennobled,  emancipated,  if  I  may  so  speak, 
the  science  of  medicine.  It  is  their  glory  and  it 
•will  be  eternal.  Medicine  will  never  forget  that 
to  them  she  owes  her  lustre. 

I  return  to  the  Faculty.  Its  intimate  structure 
is  plain  enough.  This  body  governed  itself  and 
recruited  itself  as  it  had  formed  itself.  "Our 
school,"  says  Riolan,  "had  for  founders  neither 
the  kings  of  France  nor  the  city  of  Paris  from 
•whom  it  has  never  received  any  assistance  in 
money.  It  was  founded  and  has  been  maintained 
at  the  expense  of  individual  physicians,  who  have 
contributed  to  build  it,  to  endow  it,  etc."1 

The  corps  medical  of  Paris,  taken  in  itself,  was 
a  little  republic,  a  true  republic,  which  had  the 
doctors  for  citizens,  the  Faculty  for  a  senate  and 
the  Dean  for  a  chief.  This  chief  was  only  elected 
for  two  years,  but  during  that  time  he  had  a  real 
authority.  "He  is,"  says  Guy-Patin,  "the  master 
of  the  bachelors  who  are  in  their  pupilage,  he 
directs  the  discipline  of  the  school,  he  keeps  our 
registers  which  extend  back  more  than  five  hun- 
dred years,  he  has  the  two  seals  of  the  Faculty,  he 
receives  our  revenue  and  renders  us  an  account  of 

(1)  Curieuses  recherches,  etc.,  p.  29. 


HISTORY   OF  THE  DISCOVERT.  165 

it,  he  signs  and  approves  all  the  theses,  he  causes 
the  doctors  to  preside  according  to  their  rank,  he 
calls  the  Faculty  together  whenever  he  pleases, 
and  without  his  consent  it  can  not  assemble  except 
under  a  decree  from  the  court  which  it  is  necessary 
to  obtain ;  with  the  four  examiners  he  conducts  the 
rigorous  examinations  of  a  week's  duration,  he  is 
one  of  the  three  deans  who  govern  the  University 
with  the  rector  and  is  one  of  those  who  elect  that 
officer;  he  has  double  the  revenue  of  the  others 
and  that  amounts  sometimes  to  a  very  considerable 
sum;  he  has  great  responsibilities,  much  honor, 
and  a  large  amount  of  business ;  he  conducts  the 
legal  proceedings  of  the  Faculty  and  speaks  even 
in  the  grand  chamber  before  the  advocate  gen- 
eral."1  

Our  little  republic  had  within  it  all  the  good  and 
all  the  evil  of  great  ones.  Its  individual  members 
were  passionately  devoted  to  the  glory  of  the  corps, 
and  this  was  the  good ;  but  every  moment  saw  the 
formation  of  parties,  divisions,  cabals  and  factions, 
and  this  was  the  evil.  Often  one  party  condemned 
the  other ;  sometimes  even  expelled  them.  In  1651, 
Guenaut,  Beda  and  Cornuti,  who  had  allowed  them- 
selves to  be  carried  away  by  antimony,2  were  con- 
demned by  the  Faculty :  "  this  made  them  return 

(1)  Lettret  de  Gui-Patin,  t.  ii.,  p.  566. 

(2)  Expression  of  Gui-Patin. 


164  CIRCULATION  OF  THE   BLOOD. 

to  their  duty,"  says  Guy-Patin,  "  and  if  hereafter 
they  are  wanting,  we  shall  not  be ;  the  law  and  the 
efficacy  of  the  decree  will  be  applied  to  them  so 
efficaciously,  that  they  will  remain  exiled." l  Often 
one  party  reversed  what  the  other  had  done.  In 
1566,  one  party  obtained  the  issue  of  a  decree 
against  antimony,2  and  in  1666,  just  a  century 
later,  another  party  passed  a  directly  contrary 
decree  in  favor  of  the  remedy. 

When  we  see  the  Faculty  thus  founding  itself, 
maintaining  itself,  endowing  itself,  and  owing 
everything  to  its  members  and  nothing  to  the 
state,  one  can  well  understand  that  independence 
which  was  so  peculiar  to  it,  of  which  it  was  so  jeal- 
ous, and  which  the  state  always  respected.  Our 
kings  treated  with  the  Faculty.  Louis  XI.  wished 
to  have  a  manuscript  of  Rhazes  copied,  which  the 
Faculty  owned;  but  the  Faculty  would  not  lend 
the  manuscript  to  the  royal  applicant  until  he  had 
deposited  security.3  Richelieu  exerted  his  influ- 
ence in  favor  of  the  admission  to  the  doctorate  of 
the  sons  of  the  gazetier  Renaudot,  a  man  most 
violently  hated  by  the  Faculty;  he  persisted,  the 
Faculty  resisted,  and  Richelieu  was  obliged  to 
abandon  his  point.  "All  individual  men  die,"  says 
Guy-Patin  proudly,  "but  companies  never  die. 

(1)  Lettres  de  Gui-Patin,  t.  ii.,  p.  587. 

(2)  There  was  another  decree  against  antimony,  in  1615. 

(3)  T.  L,  p.  37.    Note  of  M.  Reveille-Parise. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  DISCOVERY.  165 

The  most  powerful  man  in  Europe  for  a  hundred 
years,  except  crowned  heads,  was  Cardinal  Riche- 
lieu. He  made  the  whole  earth  tremble;  he  made 
Rome  itself  fear  him ;  he  shook  the  King  of  Spain 
on  his  throne;  nevertheless  he  was  not  able  to 
make  our  company  receive  the  two  sons  of  the 
gazetier,  who  were  licentiates,  but  who  will  not 
for  a  long  time  become  doctors." 

Finally,  the  Faculty  perished  like  all  associated 
bodies,  all  republics,  by  the  exaggeration  of  its 
peculiar  principles.  Its  grand  aim  had  been  to 
restore  Greek  and  Latin  medicine.  This  attained 
it  stopped  obstinately  and  fatally.  It  advanced 
no  farther;  but  everything  around  was  advancing. 
Modern  chemistry,  anatomy  and  physiology  were 
discovered.  These  sciences  the  Faculty  proscribed. 
When  the  government  earnestly  wished  to  extend 
a  knowledge  of  them  it  was  obliged  to  have  them 
taught  elsewhere.  The  Jardin  du  Roi  was  created, 
or  restored.  The  Faculty  proscribed  chemistry  and 
this,  it  said,  for  good  causes  and  considerations;1  in 
the  garden  it  was  taught  by  a  chair  established  ex- 
pressly for  that  purpose.  Riolaii,2  the  first  anato- 

(1)  Expressions  of  the  Faculty  in  its   Remonstrances  upon 
the  creation  of  the  Jardin  du  Roi.     See  the  Notices  histonque 
sur  le  Museum  d'histoire  naturelle  par  Laurent  de  Jussieu:  An- 
nales  du  Museum  d'hist.  nat.,  t.  i.,  p.  12. 

(2)  It  is  curious  that  Riolan,  who  rejected  modern  anatomy 
on  behalf  of  the  Faculty  and  would  have  excluded  it  from  the 
garden,  was  one  of  the  first  who  felt  the  need  of  such  a  gar- 


166  CIRCULATION    OF  THE  BLOOD. 

mist  in  the  ranks  of  the  Faculty,  rejected  the  cir- 
culation of  the  blood,  the  lymphatic  vessels,  the 
receptaculum  chyli,  etc.;  they  were  taught  in  the 
garden  by  Dionis.  Dionis  tells  us  himself,  in  his 
epistle  to  the  king  (Louis  XIV.)  "It  is  there  that 
the  circulation  of  the  blood  and  the  new  discoveries 
have  happily  freed  us  from  those  errors,  which  we 
scarcely  dared  to  leave,  and  which  the  authority  of 
the  ancients  so  long  fixed  upon  us." l 

Dionis  afterward  tells  us  that  "this  establish- 
ment, although  most  useful  for  the  public,  did  not 
fail  to  find  opposition,  which  was  raised  on  the  part 
of  those  who  pretended  that  they  alone  had  the 
right  to  teach  and  demonstrate  anatomy."2 

den.  It  is  an  honor  which  should  not  be  forgotten,  although 
he  had  so  many  other  claims  upon  our  memory.  "You  can 
likewise  inform  the  king,"  he  says  in  the  dedicatory  epistle 
of  his  Giganlologie,  addressed  to  the  Due  de  Luynes,  "  you  can 
inform  the  king,  who  only  desires  the  health  and  preservation 
of  his  subjects,  of  the  necessity  of  a  royal  garden  in  the  Uni- 
versity of  Paris,  such  as  Henry  the  Great  had  laid  out  for 
Montpellier ;  which,  if  we  obtain  from  the  king,  by  your  in- 
tercession, you  will  oblige  all  France,  which  will  appreciate 
the  great  benefit  you  will  have  procured  for  all  those  who 
practice  medicine." — (p.  8.) 

(1)  Uanatomie  de  Vhomme  suivant  la  circulation  du  sang  et  les 
nouvelles  decouvertes,  demontree  au  Jardin  du  roi,  Paris,  1716 : 
JEpitre  au  roi,  p.  2. 

(2)  Ibid,  Preface,  p.  6. — Modern  anatomy  finally  passed 
from  the  garden  to  the  Faculty:  often  the  same  professor 
taught  it  in  both  places.     See  Winslow  and  others. 


HISTORY   OF  THE   DISCOVERY.  167 

It  may  readily  be  surmised  who  those  were  who 
"formed  opposition,"  and  who  "pretended  that 
they  alone  had  the  right  to  teach  and  demonstrate 
anatomy."  They  were  the  same  persons  who  pur- 
sued the  surgeons  and  the  apothecaries  with  un- 
pitying  and  incessant  hostility.  In  truth,  the 
Faculty  did  not  pretend  to  reject  surgery  as  it  had 
rejected  the  new  sciences,  hut  it  excluded  the  sur- 
geons. Guy-Patin  spoke  of  the  surgeons  in  terms 
which  causes  us  to  blush  for  him.  The  government 
was  obliged  to  do  for  surgery  what  it  had  already 
done  for  the  new  sciences.  The  Faculty  closed 
their  doors  against  it,  the  government  opened  others 
for  it.  The  Royal  College  of  Surgery  was  created. 
"This  latter  title  (the  title  of  the  Faculty,)"  said 
La  Martiniere  to  King  Louis  XV,  "was  the  object 
of  our  ambition,  but,  since  your  supreme  will  has 
deigned  to  accord  us  the  title  of  College  royal,  the 
honor  of  depending  immediately  upon  your  Majesty 
suffices  to  console  us  for  every  other  distinction." 1 
The  Academy  of  Surgery  appeared,  and  appeared 
with  an  eclat  which  attracted  the  attention  of  all 
Europe.  The  first  volume  of  the  Memoirs  of  this 
Academy  is  the  most  beautiful  monument  of  French 
surgery.  The  Royal  Society  of  Medicine  came  in 
its  turn,  and  then  this  ancient  Faculty,  which  had 

(1)  Memoire  presentc  au  roi  par  son  premier  chirurgien  Lamar- 
tiniere,  etc. 


168  CIRCULATION   OF  THE  BLOOD. 

lasted  eight  centuries,1  terminated  its  existence. 
After  the  revolution  of  1789,  when  the  department 
of  public  instruction  was  reorganized,  the  remain- 
ing members  of  the  Royal  Society  of  Medicine 
served  as  the  nucleus  of  the  new  Faculty. 

Guy-Patin  tells  us  everything  about  his  Faculty, 
not  only  that  which  is  serious  but  that  which  is  the 
reverse.  I  have  just  described  some  of  the  cere- 
monies of  the  Faculty.  Each  of  these  events  was 
followed  by  a  feast:  "Saturday,  March  20th,  we 

received  six  bachelors The  same  day  an 

entertainment  was  given  to  the  schools."  Then 
Guy-Patin  enumerates  all  the  invited,  carefully 
indicating  the  rank  of  each:  "the  dean  and  cen- 
sors, the  ancient  deans,  the  four  examiners,  the 
five  doctors,  the  four  seniors  of  the  schools,  the 
ordinary  professors,  some  friends  of  the  dean,  who 
are  the  best  men  of  the  schools  and  the  most  con- 
siderable of  the  Faculty I  never  saw  such 

enjoyment  on  the  part  of  all;  there  was  nothing 
but  merriment  and  good  cheer." 

He  was  elected  dean  on  the  4th  of  November, 
1650,  and  on  the  1st  of  December,  he  gave  his  en- 
tertainment. "Having  returned  home  this  morn- 
ing, I  found  your  letter  there,  which  has  increased 
the  joy  I  had  yesterday  in  giving  my  feast  on 

(1)  "By  the  perusal  of  ancient  books,"  says  Riolan,  "we 
can  show  proof  of  more  than  six  hundred  years." — (Curieuses 
recherches,  etc.,  p.  28.)  Riolan  wrote  this  in  1661.  . 


HISTORY   OF   THE    DISCOVERY.  169 

account  of  my  election.  Thirty- six  of  my  col- 
leagues made  merry;  I  never  saw  so  much  drink- 
ing and  laughing  by  steady  people,  and  even  by 
our  seniors :  they  had  the  best  old  wine  of  Bour- 
gogne  which  I  reserved  for  the  feast.  I  received 
them  in  my  room,  where,  besides  the  tapistry,  are 
the  portraits  of  Erasmus,  the  two  Scaligers,  father 
and  son,  Casaubon,  Muret,  Montaigne,  Charron, 
Grotius,  Heinsius,  Saumaise,  Fernel,  de  Thou,  and 
our  good  friend  Gabriel  Naude,  librarian  of  Ma- 
zarin,  which  is  only  his  external  quality,  for  of  the 
internal  ones  he  has  as  many  as  any  one  can  have ; 
he  is  very  learned,  good,  and  wise,  has  gained  ex- 
perience and  is  cured  of  the  folly  of  the  age,  a 
faithful  and  constant  friend  for  thirty-two  years. 
There  were  also  three  other  portraits  of  excellent 
men — of  the  late  M.  de  Sales,  bishop  of  Geneva, 
of  Justus  Lipsius,  and  finally  of  Francois  Rabelais. 
What  do  you  say  of  this  assembly  ?  Were  not  my 
guests  in  good  company?" 

Everything  is  worthy  of  note  in  this  recital;  the 
joy  of  Guy-Patin,  the  old  wine,  the  seniors  who 
laughed  and  who  drank,  and  above  them  the  por- 
traits of  Erasmus,  Casaubon,  Montaigne,  Rabelais, 
Fernel,  and  other  worthies,  with  the  friend  Naude, 
Mazarin's  librarian,  which  is  only  his  external  qual- 
ity! And  how  completely  all  this  is  characteristic 
of  Guy-Patin !  the  friendly,  the  erudite,  the  critical, 
the.  enthusiastic,  the  malicious,  the  good-natured, 


170  CIRCULATION  OF  THE  BLOOD. 

and  finally  the  spiritual,  bold,  and  deniaise  Guy- 
Patin ! 

Guy-Patin  is  inexhaustible  -when  he  speaks  of 
the  Faculty;  he  is,  if  possible,  still  more  so  when 
speaking  of  men.  It  is  first  Riolan,1  his  master, 
his  friend,  who  took  him  for  his  assistant,2  who  de- 
signed him  for  his  successor  at  the  Royal  College 
of  France,  whom  Guy-Patin  calls  our  master  in 
everything;  "and  of  the  men  of  the  world  who 
knew  most  of  particulars  and  of  curiosities,  not 

only  in  medicine  but  also  in  history at  once 

a  very  good  man,  and  naturally  very  sarcastic,  .... 
who  would  that  all  the  world  wrote  against  him, 

(1)  It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  state  that  Eiolan  of  whom 
I  speak  in  this  chapter,  is  Riolan  the  son,  born  in  1580  and 
died  in  1657.     He  alone  was  a  contemporary  of  Guy-Patin  as 
Riolan  the  senior  was  born  in  1539  and  died  in  1605. 

(2)  Here  is  something  curious  in  regard  to  the  college  of 
France.     "  M.  Moreau  will  not  give  up  his  place  as  Royal 
professor  to  his  son  until  death,  because,  as  he  is  one  of  the 
seniors  of  the  College  he  has  far  greater  receipts,  on  account 
of  augmentation  in  favor  of  the  earliest  received,  than  his 
son,  who  being  one  of  the  youngest,  will  only  receive  six 
hundred  livres,  while  the  father  receives  one  thousand,  or 
nearly  eleven   hundred  livres.      Morin,   the   mathematician 
who  is  immediately  next  to  him  has  the  entire  sum,  four  hun- 
dred crowns,  the  same  as  the  dean  M.  Riolan ;  when  the  latter 
dies  I  shall  take  his  place,  having  the  same  reversion  as  the 
youngest  Moreau,  and   then  I  enter  upon  the  receipt  of  six 
hundred  livres;  afterward  I  succeed  and  increase  as  others 
die  who  were  received  before  me." — (T.  ii.,  p.  162.) 


HISTORY  OP  THE   DISCOVERY.  171 

keeping  himself  close  in  his  study,  with  a 

stove  for  warmth  in  the  manner  of  the  Germans, 
and  there  writing  against  antimony, drink- 
ing wine  all  day,  or  adding  to  it  but  very  little 
water,  and  saying  for  excuse,  that  it  was  old  wine 
of  Bourgogne." 

Then  it  is  the  family  of  the  Pietres,  all  incom- 
parable, the  elder  above  all,  for  he  presided  as  dean 
when  antimony  was  proscribed :  in  cujus  decanatu 
latum  est  decretum  adversus  stibium,  says  Guy-Patin. 

With  Guy-Patin  there  is  no  one  of  medium  qual- 
ity; he  is  is  either  incomparable  or  abominable, 
according  as  he  opposes  antimony  or  not!  For 
example,  Guenaut,  "wicked  charlatan,  obstinate  in 

all  things playing  the  tyrant  in  our  schools, 

abusing  at  the  expense  of  the  public,  the  iniquity 

and  impunity  of  the  age a  brazen-faced  pre- 

scriber  of  antimony,  peste  antimoniale,"  etc.,  etc. 
Guenaut  was  not  probably  all  that,  although  he 
must  have  been  very  lively,  very  active,  very  much 
occupied,  and  a  man  of  some  station,  for  Boileau 
reckons  him  among  the  embarrassments  of  the 
streets  of  Paris: 

"  Guenaut  sur  son  cheval  en  passant  m'eclabousse." 1 

Vautier  is   "wicked,   very  boastful    and  very 
ignorant;  the  first  physician  of  the  king  and  the 

(1)  Satire  vi. 


172  CIRCULATION   OF  THE  BLOOD. 

last  of  the  kingdom  in  capacity ;"  and  you  imme- 
diately divine  why:  lie  gives  antimony ;  and  that 
is  not  all,  lie  speaks  ill  of  senna  and  bleeding! 
"  M.  Vautier  slanders  our  Faculty  frequently  and 
we  know  it  well ;  he  says  that  we  use  nothing  but 
senna  and  depletion ;  he  has  given  antimony  very 
boldly." 

M.  Morisset,  on  the  contrary,  does  not  give  anti- 
mony; see  what  different  language!  "Le  sieur 

Morisset  is  sixty-seven  years  old, he  has  a 

good  appearance ;  he  seems  to  be  boastful,  but  is 
not  so ;  he  has,  however,  what  might  render  him 
so  more  than  others,  for  he  is  a  very  learned  and 
skillful  man.  He  converses  well,  he  speaks  elo- 
quently, he  consults  with  judgment,  speaks  Latin 
•well,  understands  Greek,  and  would  never  prescribe 
antimony."  He  would  never  prescribe  antimony: 
"  even  although  he  has  been  implored  to  do  so,  and 
principally  by  Guenaut." : 

Guy-Patin  is  passionate  in  everything:  in  poli- 
tics as  well  as  in  medicine.  In  medicine,  what  he 
hated  most  was  antimony  and  Guenaut,  in  politics 
it  was  the  Jesuits  and  Mazarin.  He  did  not  like 
Richelieu  any  better.  "Cardinal  Richelieu,"  he 

says,  "resembled  Tiberius, he  is  a  splenetic, 

who  wished  to  reign Mazarin  did  not  love 

vengeance  or  blood,  but  he  was  a  great  cut-purse." 

(1)  Lettres  de  Gui-Patin,  t.  iii.,  p.  412. 


.  HISTORY   OF  THE  DISCOVERY.  173 

It  often  happened  that  he  treated  the  Jesuits, 
the  monks,  and  the  Pope  himself,  as  if  they  had 
given  antimony!  On  the  contrary  he  showed  a 
marked  affection  for  Parliament,  for  liberty,  for 
every  kind  of  independence,  political,  civil  and  re- 
ligious, for  the  Fronde,  for  Cardinal  de  Retz.  "  The 
diet  of  Ratisbon  is  also  spoken  of,  and  it  is  said 
that  the  king  will  send  M.  le  Cardinal  de  Retz 
there.  Would  to  God  that  he  be  reinstated  in 
favor !  he  is  a  man  of  spirit,  who  loves  glory  and 
the  public  honor,  to  which  'he  will  infallibly  be  of 
benefit."  And  as  soon  as  he  saw  Louis  XIV.,  then 
quite  young,  he  foresaw  in  the  young  prince  the 
great  king:  he  says,  "the  king  is  a  prince  well- 
proportioned,  large  and  tall,  not  yet  twenty  years 
old.  He  is,"  he  continues,  "a  prince  worthy  of 
being  loved  even  by  those  to  whom  he  has  never 
been  of  service,  who  has  great  thoughts,  and  upon 
whose  inclinations  France  will  be  able  to  found  a 
repose  of  which  Richelieu  and  Mazarin  have  de- 
prived her.  I  feel  a  violent  attachment  for  him." 

I  finish  with  regret;  for  it  is  difficult  to  quit 
Guy-Patin,  a  man  so  singular  of  his  class:  writer, 
physician,  scholar,  devout  worshiper  of  the  an- 
cients, a  passionate  opponent  of  the  moderns,  a 
spirit  all  fire,  as  he  says  himself,  and  joining  to 
these,  pure  morals,  warm  and  constant  friendship, 
and  the  liveliest  tenderness  for  his  children:  "I 
love  children  dearly,"  he  says;  "I  have  six,  and  it 


174  CIRCULATION   OF  THE  BLOOD. 

seems  to  me  that  I  have  not  enough ;  I  am  very 
happy  to  learn  that  you  have  a  little  daughter ;  we 
have  only  one  and  she  is  so  gentle  and  so  agreea- 
ble that  we  love  her  almost  as  much  as  we  do  our 
five  boys." 

We  know  that  he  was  not  a  happy  father.  Of 
his  six  children,  five  died  young,  a  loss  which 
brought  from  his  pen  these  touching  words :  quo- 
dam  modo  moritur  Hie  qui  amittit  suos.  His  eldest 
son,  Robert,  for  whom  he  had  obtained  the  succes- 
sion of  his  chair  in  the  College  of  France,  died 
early ;  and  his  deeply -loved  son  Charles,  his  "  dear 
Carolus,"  as  he  always  called  him,  the  illustrious 
son  who  inherited  his  father's  genius  and  his  pas- 
sion for  study,  was  exiled. 

As  to  himself,  he  was  born l  on  the  31st  of  Au- 
gust, 1601,  and  died  on  the  30th  of  August,  1672. 
His  Letters  commence  in  1630  and  end  in  the  year 
of  his  death.  They  are  addressed,  by  turns,  to 
two  physicians  of  Troyes,  the  two  Berlins,  father 
and  son,  and  to  two  physicians  of  Lyons,  Charles 
Spon  and  Andre  Falconet. 

M.  Reveille-Parise  alludes  to  some  small  works 
by  Guy-Patin : 2  these  works  are  very  insignificant. 

(1)  At  La  Place,  a  little  hamlet  of  the  commune  of  Hodenc- 
en-Bray   (not  far  from   Beauvais,)    an   ancient   province  of 
Picardy. 

(2)  In  his  Notice  Uvgraphique  preceding  hia  edition  of  the 
Lettres  de  Guy-Patin. 


HISTORY   OF  THE  DISCOVERY.  175 

Guy-Patin,  in  truth,  wrote  nothing  but  his  Letters; 
and  these  letters,  in  spite  of  a  boldness  of  thought 
often  excessive/  in  spite  of  language  often  too  vio- 
lent, in  spite  of  many  errors  in  facts  and  many 
prejudices  against  men,  these  letters,  the  brilliant 
expression  of  a  superior  mind  and  a  fiery  spirit 
•will  ensure  his  remembrance,  for  he  has  put  that 
in  them  which  never  dies — style. 

Guy-Patin  is  the  most  spiritual  and  witty  physi- 
cian who  ever  wrote,  if  we  except  Rabelais,  of 
whom,  however,  physician  was  only  the  "external 
quality" 

[PARIS  alludes  to  one  of  them  in  the  "Revolutionary  His- 
tory of  the  Materia  Medica  "  prefixed  to  his  Pharmacologia. 
It  was  entitled  "  Antimonial  Martyrology"  and  consisted  of  a 
register  of  unsuccessful  cases  in  which  antimony  had  been, 
given ! — Tr.~\ 

(3)  "  He  wrote  to  one  of  his  friends  with  a  liberty  not  only 
entire,  but  sometimes  excessive ;  elogiums  are  not  very  com- 
mon in  his  Lettres  and  what  predominates  there  is  very  inde- 
pendent philosophic  spleen." — (Fontenelle:  Eloge  de  Dodart.) 


TABLE   OF   CONTENTS. 


I.  HARVEY  AND  THE  CIRCULATION  OF  THE  BLOOD, 11 

Erasistratus, 12 

Galen,  13 

The  first  modern  anatomists, 16 

Servetus  and  the  pulmonary  circulation, 19 

Columbus, 25 

Cccsalpinus,  26 

Ccesalpinus  and  the  general  circulation,  27 

Fabricius  ab  Acquapendente,  31 

Sarpi, 31 

Vasseus  or  Le  Vasseur  and  a  quotation  of  M.  Portal,  33 

Harvey, 34 

II.  DUVERNEY  AND  THD  FCETAL  CIRCULATION, 45 

Galen, 45 

The  early  modern  anatomists,  Vesalius  and  Eallopius,  43 

Arantius  and  Carcanus,  60 

Botal, 62 

The  uses  of  the  ductus  arteriosus  and  foramen  ovale,  64 

Harvey, 68 

Duverney  and  Mcry,  61 

III.  ASELLT,  PECQUET,  RUDBECK,  BARTHOLIN, G7 

The  lacteals,  the  receptaculum  chili,  &  the  lymphatics,  67 

Galen  and  the  theory  of  sanguification, 68 


178  TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 

Pecquet  and  the  reservoir  of  the  chyle,  81 

Rudbeck  and  the  lymphatic  vessels, 83 

Thomas  Bartholin  &  the  lymphatics  of  the  entire  body,  85 

Thomas  Bartholin  and  the  obsequies  of  the  liver, 86 

Biolan  and  Harvey, 88 

Aristotle  and  the  formation  of  blood  in  the  heart,  ....  90 

Stenon  and  the  true  use  of  the  heart, 92 

Lower  and  the  coloration  of  the  blood  by  the  lungs,...  93 

The  Spirits, 96 

Innate  heat, „ 97 

IV.  SARPI  AND  THE  VALVES  OF  THE  VEINS, 100 

Sarpi, 101 

Sarpi  and  the  valves  of  the  veins, 102 

Sarpi  and  the  circulation  of  the  blood,  108 

Harvey  and  the  true  use  of  the  valves, 116 

Harvey  and  his  predecessors, 118 

Nemesius,  Bishop  of  Emesa,  119 

V.  SERVETUS  AND  THE  FORMATION  OF  THE  SPIRITS,  122 

VI.  GUY-PATIN  AND  THE  CONTEST  BETWEEN  ANCIENT  AND 

MODERN    PHILOSOPHY,   141 

VH.  GUY-PATIN  AND  THE  FACULTY  OF  PARIS,  159 


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